Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY

A10 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 14 March 2017

In Syria, deal struck to allow rebels to leave city of Homs

BASSEM MROUE on occasion also food. dents, including 2,500 fight-
Associated Press Barrazi’s statement, car- ers. It said the first batch of
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian op- ried by state news agency 1,500 people will be evacu-
position fighters will be al- SANA, said the evacuation ated next week and will be
lowed to leave the last is the third phase of a deal followed by similar groups
rebel-held neighborhood reached last year that saw over the coming weeks.
in the city of Homs under a hundreds of fighters and Those who leave will be
Russia-backed deal signed their families leave al-Waer taken to rebel-held areas
on Monday, a Syrian offi- to other rebel-held areas. elsewhere in Homs prov-
cial and an activist said. Opposition activist Bebars ince, the northwestern
According to Talal Bar- al-Talawy, who is from al- province of Idlib and the
razi, the governor of Homs Waer, said the agreement town of Tel Abyad near the
province where the city was signed Monday, add- border with Turkey, the Ob-
of Homs is the capital, the ing that a committee will servatory said. It said Mon-
deal is to be carried out In this February, 2016 photo, a Syrian boy rides a bicycle through be formed to prepare the day’s deal followed weeks
within six to eight weeks. a devastated part of the old city of Homs, Syria. Syrian opposi- lists of names of those who of intense bombardment
The rebel fighters who de- tion fighters will be allowed to leave the last rebel-held neigh- want to leave. and airstrikes on the neigh-
borhood in the city of Homs under a Russia-backed deal signed
cide to stay in Homs can on Monday, March 13, 2017, a Syrian official and an activist said. “People are happy that borhood that left 250 killed
benefit from a government (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar) they will get rid of the siege, or wounded.
amnesty that was issued but sad because they will Syrian state TV said the first
earlier, he added. leave Homs,” al-Talawy group will leave al-Waer on
Homs, the country’s third parts of the city were held borhood. said. Saturday. The discrepancy
largest city, was once by rebels and insurgents Al-Waer is home to about The Britain-based Syr- between the TV report on
the center of the uprising but the state eventually re- 75,000 people and has ian Observatory for Human the timing of the rebel de-
against President Bashar gained control of all areas been under a government Rights criticized the agree- parture and that of the Ob-
Assad. During the civil war, of the city except for al- siege since 2013, triggering ment, saying it aims to dis- servatory could not imme-
now in its sixth year, wide Waer, the last rebel neigh- shortages of medicine and place 12,000 al-Waer resi- diately be reconciled.q
Prosecutor ordering release of

Egypt’s ousted leader Mubarak

MAGGIE MICHAEL the killing of protesters dur-
HAMZA HENDAWI ing the 2011 revolution.
Associated Press That verdict, according to
CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s Saleh, cleared the way for
ousted president Hosni Mubarak’s lawyer to re-
Mubarak was ordered to quest his release.
be freed from detention Mubarak, according to
on Monday, according to Saleh, has already served
the prosecutor who signed a three-year sentence for
his release order. The deci- embezzling state funds
sion ends nearly six years of while in detention in con-
legal proceedings against nection with the protesters’
Mubarak and seems cer- case.
tain to revive the ongoing A criminal court ruled in
debate over whether the May 2015 to jail Mubarak
goals of the 2011 uprising for three years and fine him
that ended his reign were millions of Egyptian pounds
ever realized.
The prosecutor, Ibrahim following his conviction
Saleh, told The Associat- for embezzling funds ear-
ed Press that he ordered marked for the mainte-
Mubarak’s release after he nance and renovation of
accepted a petition by the presidential palaces. The
former president’s lawyer ruling was upheld by an-
for his freedom on the basis other court in January 2016.
of time already served. “There is not a single rea-
Mubarak, 88, was acquit- son to keep him in deten-
ted by the country’s top tion and the police must
appeals court on March 2 execute the order,” Saleh
of charges that he ordered said. “He is free to go.”q