Rebels have struck a deal to withdraw from the army-besieged heart of Homs city, as government forces advanced on a strategic town near the Syrian capital, a month before elections.
The deal over the Old City of Homs, under total blockade since June 2012, will see some 2250 people, mostly fighters, evacuate the flashpoint city in central Syria.
Rebels will head to opposition-held areas in the north of Homs province, handing over control to the army, opposition sources say.
The deal brought together - for the first time - representatives of President Bashar al-Assad's security forces, the rebels and Damascus backer Iran.
Homs was dubbed the "capital of the revolution" at the start of the anti-Assad uprising in 2011, and it has seen some of the heaviest violence in Syria's war.
According to the opposition, the deal includes the exchange of an unknown number of Iranian and Lebanese prisoners currently held by the Islamic Front, Syria's largest rebel alliance.
"An agreement occurred between representatives of the rebels and the chiefs of security, in the presence of the Iranian ambassador, for the pullout of fighters from the Old City," rebel negotiator Abul Hareth al-Khalidi said on Sunday.
He said the talk had now moved onto the implementation phase.
Also under the deal, relief will be allowed into two Shi'ite, pro-regime towns in the northern province of Aleppo that are under siege by rebels.
The text specifies that the evacuees will be escorted by UN and Iranian embassy representatives, as "guarantors" of their safety.
But regime representatives said it was an "arrangement" rather than a deal.
The army made major advances Sunday on Mleiha, a town strategically located southeast of Damascus near the airport road, a security official said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported the advance, saying that Lebanon's Shi'ite movement Hezbollah was playing a "lead role" in the battle.
Like the rest of the Eastern Ghouta area, Mleiha has been besieged for the past year and under fierce bombardment for several weeks.
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