According to the agency, engineering brigades have completed work at the 47 kilometers long highway (29 miles).

The Homs-Hama highway and a number nearby settlements came under the control of the Syrian government army about a month ago as a result of arrangements on withdrawal of radical groups from the north of Homs province and the south of Hama. The highway between the two provinces, which is located in central Syria, is considered to be a strategically important site from an economic point of view.

After the highway reopening, motorists waved Syrian flags while driving the road, marking the victory of President Bashar al-Assad's forces, which managed in recent months to gain back control of all pockets of militants around the country's capital, as well as along the highway, which has been sieged for years.

READ MORE: Huge Blasts Heard Near Airport in Syria's Hama — Reports (PHOTO, VIDEO)

The Syrian government troops with the support of the Russian Aerospace Forces have made significant progress in liberating key parts of Syria from terrorists since the beginning of this year.

READ MORE: Syrian Army Liberates Dozens of Towns in Central Syria as Militants Surrender </s> A soldier stands guard near a poster of Syria's President Bashar al Assad and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin during the re-opening of the road between Homs and Hama in Rastan, Syria, June 6, 2018. REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian government re-opened the highway between the cities of Homs and Hama on Wednesday a month after its forces retook a rebel-held pocket that had straddled the road that was closed for almost seven years.

Motorists waved Syrian flags as they drove down the highway whose re-opening marked a victory for President Bashar al-Assad, who in recent months has taken control of all rebel-held pockets around the capital Damascus as well as the enclave along the highway which had been under siege for years.

From holding less than a fifth of Syria in 2015, Assad, with Russian and Iranian help, has recovered control of the largest chunk of the country.

Without the highway, traffic had to take an indirect route to travel the 45 km (30 miles) between Syria’s third and fourth largest pre-war cities.

Residents from Talbiseh, a town just north of Homs controlled by rebels until early May, said they were relieved to see the highway re-open.

“If we wanted to go to Homs before, we had to go half way round the world,” said 42-year-old farmer Hussein al-Muhammad. “Now it will just take us quarter of a hour.”

Another Talbiseh farmer, 61-year-old Hamoud Alloush, said he had survived the years of siege by eating what he could grow. He had already been to Homs and back to sell his produce on Wednesday.

“(The journey) used to take more than two hours,” he said.

Significant areas of Syria still remain beyond Assad’s grasp, including nearly all of the north, much of the east, and a chunk of the southwest, areas where foreign interests will complicate further gains. </s> Syrian authorities have reopened part of the National Museum in Damascus to the public, more than six years after it was shut down amid the country’s civil war.

Culture Minister Mohamed al-Ahmad said the October 28 reopening of the world-renowned antiquities museum sent "a message of security and safety" for the conflict-wracked country.

The museum closed in 2012 to protect its ancient artifacts from damage, and most of the collection was evacuated and kept at secret locations.

The decision to reopen part of the museum comes as the Syrian government maintains normality is returning to the country.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces secured Damascus earlier this year, but fighting has continued in some areas of the country.

Russia and Iran have given Assad crucial support throughout the 7 1/2-year war in Syria, which began with a government crackdown on protesters in March 2011.

The conflict has left more than 400,000 people dead, displaced millions, and devastated many historic sites across the country.

Based on reporting by the BBC, Reuters, AP, and AFP </s> A Free Syrian Army soldier walks through a street in Amariya district in Aleppo, Syria on September 10, 2012.

Beirut: The expected withdrawal of Syrian rebels from their one-time bastion of east Aleppo is the latest by opposition fighters surrounded by government forces.

For much of the conflict in Syria, the government has promoted “local reconciliation” deals that have often involved the evacuation from opposition territory of civilians and rebels who have surrendered.

The government says such deals are the best way to end the conflict that began with anti-regime protests in March 2011, before spiralling into civil war.

But the opposition says they are forced into these agreements after months or years of siege and army bombardment.

The tactic has attracted international concern, with allegations that the government is pursuing a “starve or surrender” policy against opposition areas.

More than 800,000 Syrians live under siege, according to the United Nations, with most encircled by regime forces, although rebels also use the tactic.

Probably the most well-known evacuation deal prior to Aleppo produced the 2014 withdrawal of rebels from the Old City of Homs after a two-year government siege.

Homs was dubbed the “capital of the revolution” after vast protests there early in Syria’s anti-regime uprising.

Assad’s forces later blockaded and bombarded insurgents holed up in the historic neighbourhood.

Most were finally evacuated in May 2014 under a deal involving a major rebel coalition and regime backer Iran.

But the regime continued to besiege Waer, the last remaining opposition-held district in Homs, until a local deal was agreed in December 2015.

Over the next several months, hundreds of rebels and their families were bussed out of Waer and taken to rural areas of Homs province.

In August 2016, all rebels and civilians from Daraya near Damascus were evacuated under a local agreement that followed a four-year government siege.

The opposition fighters and their families were given safe passage to rebel-held Idlib in the northwest, and regime troops moved back into the town, once a symbol of Syria’s peaceful uprising.

In September, a further 300 Syrians living in rebel-held Moadimayet Al Sham near Damascus were evacuated under the same accord.

Opposition fighters said they were forced to accept the deal, as a blockade and constant bombardment by the army had made the humanitarian situation untenable.

A UN-backed agreement saw hundreds of people evacuated from the government-controlled towns of Fuaa and Kafraya and rebel-held Zabadani in December 2015.

Fuaa and Kafraya, in northwestern Idlib province, are Shiite towns besieged by rebels.

Zabadani and Madaya are two rebel-held towns near Damascus that are surrounded by government forces.

The elaborate deal involving Lebanon and Turkey as transit countries has also led to humanitarian deliveries to both rebel and regime areas, most recently in September 2016. </s> Syrian rebels and their families began retreating from the outskirts of Homs, the last remaining opposition-held stronghold in central Syria, after a Russian-brokered evacuation deal was signed earlier this week.

The first buses carrying rebels and their families departed from the al-Waer neighborhood in western Homs early on Saturday, state-run SANA news agency reported.

Talal al-Barazi, Homs’ governor, told the media outlet that the first group of evacuees includes over 1,500 people who will be transported to the northeastern edge of Aleppo province.

The evacuation operation is being overseen by Syrian and Russian military police units, al-Barazi later told Reuters, adding that all rebels from al-Waer are due to depart within around six weeks.

“The preparations and the reality on the ground indicate that things will go well,” the governor stressed. “We are optimistic that the full exit of armed [fighters] from this district will pave the way for other reconciliations and settlements,” he added.

Government forces have been fighting to retake the al-Waer neighborhood, home to some 75,000 people, since 2013.

After the Arab Spring broke out in 2011, the city of Homs saw massive riots against President Bashar Assad, which gradually turned violent, as peaceful demonstrations led to the rise of an armed insurgency.

Once the first batch of rebels has left the area, food and aid supplies are expected to arrive in the troubled neighborhood, al-Barrazi told AP. Earlier this week, he that said rebels who laid down their weapons and decided to stay in al-Waer could be eligible for government amnesty, as declared earlier.

On Friday, the Russian Reconciliation Center said negotiations between the Syrian military and rebel commanders are underway in Homs, Damascus, and Hama, as well as other locations. Once Syria’s second-largest city, Aleppo was finally completely liberated last year when rebels evacuated after a ceasefire was declared.

As the Syrian military continues their offensive against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), Damascus has intensified its efforts to persuade some of the rebel groups to surrender and sign reconciliation agreements.

Speaking to Chinese TV station Phoenix last week, President Assad said ceasefire deals negotiated with local rebel leaders were “the real political solutions” that could lead to a lasting peace in war-torn Syria.
The Syrian government re-opens the Homs–Hama highway after it was closed for seven years.