Syrian Military Reclaims Last of Key Rebel City of Homs

Most of the evacuations of the rebels came yesterday, and today the Syrian military formally retook control of the Old City neighborhood of Homs, the last holdout, and declared what was once a rebel-dominated city “secure.”

Homs looks anything but secure after protracted battles, and the provincial governor’s promise of reconstruction has many refugees hoping they can eventually return, but skeptical that the fighting is really over.

The rebels had held out in the last neighborhood for years, and it was only an internationally negotiated deal to allow them to withdraw with weapons that ended the siege.

As the civil war has dragged on, the military and the rebels have carved out separate areas of control, with the military controlling most of the area from Damascus to Homs, and the various rebels controlling a lot of the border areas with Turkey, Iraq and Jordan.