Evacuation convoy from Syria's Homs reaches Al-Bab

By Burak Karacaoglu and Omer Koparan

IDLIB/AZAZ (AA) - A first convoy of buses carrying people from Homs’s regime-besieged northern outskirts arrived in Syria’s Al-Bab district on Tuesday, according to Anadolu Agency correspondents on the ground.

The convoy of 66 buses carrying 3,194 people set out from northern Homs on Monday afternoon.

On May 2, the Syrian regime and opposition groups agreed to a cease-fire in Homs province’s northern countryside.

Under the deal, Russian and regime forces would move into the region while opposition fighters would surrender their heavy weapons.

The agreement also provides opposition fighters with a safe exit from other opposition-held parts of northern Syria.

Syria has only just begun to emerge from a vicious conflict that began in 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected ferocity.