THE remaining fighters started to withdraw from the last rebel-held enclave in central Syria yesterday, state television reported, sealing the government’s control over the area and opening a major stretch of the country’s most important highway.

It further cements President Bashar al-Assad’s dominant position over the most populated parts of Syria after years of fighting, but means any new military campaign might risk direct conflict with foreign powers.

The withdrawal may also be the last in a series of agreed evacuations used by the government to defeat besieged insurgents by forcing them to surrender territory in return for safe passage to opposition areas in the north.

Often brokered by Assad’s Russian allies, such agreements have in recent years become a defining characteristic of Syria’s seven-year war. They have displaced over 100,000 people — rebel fighters and civilians.

The opposition has called it a policy of forced displacement amounting to demographic change to force out Assad’s opponents. The Syrian Government has said nobody is forced to leave and those who stay must accept state rule.

The last besieged rebel area is the large enclave located between the cities of Hama and Homs around the towns of Rastan, Talbiseh and Houla.

(SD-Agencies)