The enclaves in south Damascus and near Homs are the only two besieged areas still held by rebels, though they still control large tracts of northwest and southwest Syria, lying along its international borders, which are not surrounded by the army.
Syrian
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
has focused on dislodging rebels from their remaining besieged pockets since driving them from eastern Ghouta last month after a fierce offensive.
Syrian state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
showed footage of buses arriving at Beit Sahm, driving through narrow streets surrounded by soldiers and with concrete buildings above showing scars of war.
It later reported that the first batch of buses had departed, carrying fighters and their families from the area.
Some 5,000 fighters and their family members are expected to leave Beit Sahm, Babila and Yalda neighbourhoods for the opposition areas in northern Syria, it reported, following an earlier group which left the enclave on Monday.
Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
(IS) gunnies holding another part of the same enclave are still fighting after weeks of intense bombardment in the area of al-Hajar al-Aswad and Yarmouk Paleostinian refugee camp.
On Wednesday, turbans in the biggest of the remaining besieged areas, located between the cities of Hama and Homs around the towns of Rastan, Talbiseh and Houla, also agreed to surrender.
However,
you can observe a lot just by watching...
a small number of them rejected the deal and shelled government areas late on Wednesday and early on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor and two local sources said.