Syrian rebels begin evacuation from Homs

HOMS, Syria — Scores of Syrian opposition fighters and their families began leaving the last rebel-held neighborhood in the central city of Homs on Saturday as part of a Russian-backed evacuation deal signed last week.

By sunset, 344 fighters and their families had left the city — once a center of protest during the 2011 uprising — completing the evacuation for the day.

Green government buses ferried the fighters, many carrying assault rifles, and their families from the northern al-Waer neighborhood to Homs’ western entrance, where they disembarked and had some of their bags searched under the supervision of Syrian and Russian military police.

The al-Waer neighborhood is home to about 75,000 people and has been under a government siege since 2013, causing shortages of medicine and occasionally of food.