Talks on a rebel withdrawal from a handful of besieged neighbourhoods in Syria's Homs have entered their final phase, officials said today, as the army advanced around Damascus and Aleppo.
Talks to evacuate Homs, once dubbed "the capital of the revolution" against President Bashar al-Assad, are near completion, according to Governor Talal al-Barazi and rebel representative and negotiator Abul Harith al-Khalidi.
The negotiations continued a day after a ceasefire began in the badly battered city, which has suffered some of Syria's worst and most persistent violence since the revolt began in March 2011.
A rebel pull-out from a handful of besieged, opposition- held districts in the heart of the city would mean Assad's regime has regained complete control of Homs.
"Talks to rid the city of arms and of armed men... Are ongoing and we are near the end," said Barazi.
Abul Harith said the talks are being held in tandem with negotiations to free a group of pro-regime Iranian officers held by rebels in the northern city of Aleppo.
Such a deal, which would include guarantees of safe passage for the Homs fighters, "is a way to put pressure on the regime," he said, adding that all rebel groups, including the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front, had given him permission to negotiate the pullout.
"We want to stop this bloodbath," he said.
Earlier, Barazi had said Al-Nusra opposed the truce.
Homs, Syria's third city, is strategically located in the heart of the country.
Barazi said the deal "will be applied first in the Old City, then in Waer. The goal is to reach a peaceful solution that brings back security and government institutions."
Elsewhere in Syria, the army pressed advances around Aleppo and took control of the road leading to the airport, according to a security source who said troops also made fresh gains northeast of the city.
Today, rebels launched a mortar attack on a government- held area of Aleppo, hitting a hospital and killing 12 people, according to SANA state news agency.
Meanwhile 22 civilians, mainly students, were wounded in a mortar attack that hit Aleppo University's economics faculty.
Mortar rounds also hit Damascus, killing three people, SANA said.
Three soldiers were killed in a car bombing in the Sammuriyeh neighbourhood of southwestern Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
