As the second round of peace talks between the Syrian government and the opposition begin in Geneva, the fighting on the ground continues. Both parties are vying for every inch of ground. In the latest skirmish, rebels attacked and killed over 60 people in an Alawite Village in central Syria. The Syrian army is also repositioning its units with all possibilities on the table for when the ceasefire expires.
This is Homs, once called the capital of the Syrian revolution and one of the first cities where rebels took up arms against the Syrian government and the first to sink the the country into the swirl of sectarian violence.
Today the hub of the rebellion has became the success story of the Syrian government military response to insurgency.
Months of relentless military pressure on the militants fortified inside the old parts of the city where no party can advance anymore has allowed a deal under which civilians will be evacuated out of these neighborhoods and aid coming in. Under the watchful eye of the soldiers the women, children and men over 54 were allowed out, still trapped by the fighting.
The Syrian government controls over 75 percent of the war shattered city after it controlled little over 20 percent three years old.
We are standing in the premises of a factory of a factory that was controlled by the opposition fighters but units of the Syrian special forces moved in on it regaining control, Syrian officers are telling us that behind this barrier the soldiers are standing on there are over four hundred militants from radical Islamist factions such as Anusra front, the Islamic front and the ISIS.
Many of the soldiers here are conscripts or reserve troops, taken from their ordinary lives to join the war, some of them has been on active duty for over two years.
Al-Qarabis, kidnapped for sectarian reason or worked for the Syrian government. Every time the tanks, they could be shelling their own.
