Last batch of rebels leaving central Homs in Syria

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The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 12,000 people were meant to be evacuated from al-Waer. But that the figure has exceeded 20,000 as many fear that their sons will be drafted into the army if they stay.

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The Observatory says Russian military police have already begun entering parts of al-Waer.

The evacuations in Homs came as Turkey’s official media said Ankara has stepped up its training program for rebels known as the Free Syrian Army, a militia that has fought alongside Turkish forces against the Islamic State group and U.S.-backed Kurdish rebels.

Turkey has vowed to battle Kurdish militants in Syria and Iraq if necessary. The state-run Anadolu news agency reported that Turkish special forces are training larger Free Syrian Army groups.

The agency quoted an unidentified military official saying, “It’s no longer the old FSA in the field but a new FSA being born. These FSA members in training will show their difference in possible future operations.”

Ankara sent ground troops into northern Syria in August to help Syrian opposition forces drive Islamic State militants from the border and curb the advance of Kurdish forces.

In eastern Syria, IS fighters took advantage of a dust storm in the province of Deir el-Zour, storming a village controlled by a U.S-backed Kurdish-led force where they killed at least eight people and kidnapped more than a dozen.

The Syrian Democratic Forces have been on the offensive against IS in northern and eastern Syria for months and are now marching toward the extremists’ de-facto capital of Raqqa. The extremists have repeatedly hit back with attacks on villages and towns controlled by the SDF and other opponents.

The Observatory said IS fighters entered the village of Jazaret al-Bushams on Friday afternoon, killed 19 civilians and kidnapped others. Omar Abu Laila, a Europe-based opposition activist from Deir el-Zour, said the extremists killed eight and kidnapped 13.

The Associated Press