A truce agreement has been reached between Syrian opposition rebels and government troops to lift a year-long siege on a town outside the capital, for humanitarian reasons, activists say.
The truce affected a besieged town of 15,000, Mouadamiyat al-Sham, in the outskirts of the capital Damascus, now held by rebels opposed to President Bashar al-Assad and his government, according to the Britain-based opposition group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
It calls for residents to fly the Syrian flag and rebel groups to disarm and leave, in exchange for allowing food and other provisions into the town.
"This is a humiliation (for) the rebels to raise the flag of the people who are killing the Syrian people, but they had no choice anymore because children were dying out of hunger," Omar Homsi, an activist based in the central province of Homs said.
The Syrian Observatory's Rami Abdel Rahman told Lebanese television broadcasters that it was "a hard decision on behalf of the rebels... It was a sour pill they had to swallow to save civilians".
In at least one previous such truce agreement, civilians were allowed to leave a rebel-held town but the rebels were not forced to disarm and fly the government flag.
"An agreement was reached between leading figures from the city of Mouadamiyat al-Sham and the regime. It consists of lifting the siege on the town and letting in food if the residents raised the Syrian national flag on several positions in the city," the Syrian Observatory said.
The Syrian national flag - red, black and white stripes with two green stars, which represents the ruling Baath Party - was flying over water tanks in the rebel-held area, according to video footage shown on the Lebanese pro-Syrian television channel, al-Mayadeen.
Mouadamiyat al-Sham, which lies west of Damascus, has been under siege by Syrian government troops for more than a year.
Food and medical supplies were prevented by government troops to enter the rebel-held area.
People were dying of hunger due to the siege, according to local activists in the outskirts of Damascus.
The agreement also states that rebels inside the town hand over their heavy weapons and that only residents of Mouadamiyat al-Sham will remain in the town, and all rebels who are not from the area are to leave.
According to Syrian MP George Nakhleh, who spoke to al-Mayadeen television, the army will stay on the outskirts of the town while the town residents protect it.
In return, food and other supplies will be allowed to enter the area.
