Rebels swapped in UN deal

A rare UN-backed deal between Syria's warring sides saw hundreds of fighters and civilians evacuate three towns yesterday, as bomb blasts in the regime-held city of Homs killed at least 14 people.

President Bashar al-Assad's regime has agreed to several ceasefires with rebel groups in the past but yesterday's evacuation plan was one of the most elaborate in the nearly five-year war.

The United Nations has been pushing for such local deals as global powers pursue wider efforts to resolve a conflict that left more than 250,000 dead and forced millions from their homes.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, more than 120 fighters and wounded yesterday began leaving Zabadani, the last rebel bastion on Syria's border with Lebanon.

They were to travel across the border to Lebanon and fly from Beirut to Turkey, before travelling back into opposition-held areas in Syria, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

Another 335 people, including civilians, began travelling from two regime-controlled villages in northwestern Syria to other government areas, also via the neighbouring countries, he said.

Residents of the mainly Shia villages of Fuaa and Kafraya were to cross into Turkey, then fly into Beirut and travel overland into Damascus. It is the first time the neighbouring countries are involved in such an evacuation deal.

It is the first time the neighbouring countries are involved in such an evacuation deal. The next part of the deal, according to the Britain-based Observatory, would see humanitarian aid delivered into the towns.

Meanwhile, at least 32 people were killed and 90 wounded in two bomb explosions in the Syrian city of Homs yesterday, monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The blasts, one from a car bomb and another from a suicide attack, struck the Zahra district in the middle of the city, the Britain-based Observatory said.

It was the second major attack in the city since a ceasefire deal between warring sides took effect earlier this month, paving the way for the government to take over the last rebel-controlled area of Homs.