RASTAN: Syrian security forces raising the government flag in the main square of the town of Rastan in the central Homs province on Wednesday after they took control of it as rebels and their relatives were evacuated — AFP RASTAN, May 16 (AFP): The Syrian government retook full control of central Syria on Wednesday as rebels and their relatives were evacuated from final pockets of territory still outside the regime's grasp, an AFP correspondent reported.
The evacuations from areas straddling the boundary between Homs and Hama provinces came under a deal between rebel factions and the government.
Hundreds of people gathered in the centre of the town of Rastan in Homs province to welcome the return of government security forces and attend a flag-raising ceremony on the main square.
Nearby towns and villages in the areas of Talbiseh and Al-Hula were also evacuated, the official SANA news agency and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reported.
"The last convoy of terrorists and their families exits northern Homs province and southern Hama province," SANA reported.
The armed factions, which the government systematically refers to as "terrorists", were transferred to Idlib province, which still largely escapes regime control.
A total of 34,500 people-armed men and their families-were transferred out of the area as part of the deal, according to the Britain-based Observatory.
"As of today, there is not one gunman left, no weapons left in the whole of Homs province," the province's governor, Talal Barazai, told AFP in Rastan.
Pockets of jihadists from the Islamic State group are however still thought to be active on the province's scarcely-populated far eastern edge.
The governor vowed that the Damascus-Hama highway would reopen "in the coming days".
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