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May 3, 2014

Syrian rebels to leave Homs-a victory for Assad

Tens of thousands of Syrian rebels is set to withdraw from country’s third-largest city Homs after agreeing a ceasefire deal with government forces who had surrounded them.


This historic deal  that will bring the country’s third-largest city under the control of forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad if the deal gets successful it will be  a major symbolic blow to the uprising, which began in March 2011  and significant victory for Assad weeks before 3June 2014 presidential elections .

Where will these jihadists or Syrian rebels go
But the question is what threat foreign jihadists  will pose when they return home. The foreign fighters in Syria pose a threat akin to the fictional zombie apocalypse.

Will these foreign jihadist deaths come back to normal life in their respective countries.The threat to the UK from returning fighters from the Syrian civil war is now the same as that from al-Qaeda terrorists in the borderlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

 Returning fighters  will be questioned and monitored but in some countries, like Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Jordan — where it is now illegal to fight in Syria — returning jihadists face jail time. It's a one way traffic  to Syria from the above said three countries than it is to return to them from Syria

For the past two years, jihadists have been able to gain access bomb and weapons training as well as further radicalisation.

UK is seeing a growing threat from terrorist groups in Syria.
Prime Minister David Cameron said: "We are very concerned as a government and as a country about the threat of terrorism coming out of Syria. And so what we are doing is trying to prevent people from travelling there."

Two hundred and fifty British-based jihadists returned home after training and fighting in Syria.


Immigration Minister James Brokenshire said the terror threat posed by individuals who have trained in Syria including veterans who have fought in Afghanistan or Pakistan is a big problem. He urged officials to be vigilant about travel between England and Syria.

“The threat to the UK comes from a range of countries and groups but Syria is perhaps the biggest challenge right now.”


“The nature of the conflict in Syria and the emergence of the Al Nusrah Front that has close links to  Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri is  becoming an increasingly potential threats to the UK and UK interests overseas.”
HOMS
Homs –once dubbed the “capital of the revolution”has seen some of the heaviest fighting of Syria’s civil war.The uprising began in 2011 with mass rallies calling for democratic change but escalated into an insurgency when the regime launched a brutal crackdown.

Rebels in the city agreed on Friday to surrender territory in exchange for safe passage to other opposition-held areas.According to activists inside Syria’s third largest city, the first of about 1,000 fighters would withdraw from the Old City on Saturday to countryside to the north of the city
Some 60,000 Syrians have fled since Wednesday from three towns to escape fighting between the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights

The agreement came after a blockade by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces caused widespread hunger in rebel-held parts of the city.

“Talks to rid the city of arms and of armed men… are ongoing and we are near the end,” said provincial governor Talal al-Barazi.

Abul Harith al-Khalidi, the rebel tasked with negotiatingthe deal, said the talks are being held in tandem with negotiations to free a group of pro-regime Iranian officersheld by rebels in the northern city of Aleppo.“We want to stop this bloodbath,” he said.

Only a handful of neighbourhoods surrounding the now destroyed Old City remain in rebel hands, after a series of massive army offensives starting in February 2012.

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.”

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