SYRIA’S government and rebels agreed to a ceasefire today in the devastated city of Homs to allow hundreds of rebel fighters holed up in its old quarters to evacuate.

The ceasefire will bring the country’s third-largest city under control of forces loyal to President Bashar Assad and will represent a significant victory for the president.

Homs was one of the first cities to rise up against his rule three years ago, earning it the nickname of the “capital of the revolution.”

It was the first city largely taken over by armed rebels as the uprising turned into civil war and has since been a scene of gruelling urban warfare. 

For the past months rebels have been isolated inside a string of Homs neighbourhoods in its historic old quarters.

“This isn't what we wanted,” Homs-based rebel Beibars Tilawi said of the ceasefire. “But it’s all we could get.”