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State media: Syria allows some men of fighting age to leave Homs, clears them of rebel links

Associated Press
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In this photo taken on Sunday Feb. 9, 2014, and released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian citizens walk towards a bus to evacuate the battleground city of Homs, Syria. A Syrian Red Crescent official says around 300 more people were evacuated Monday from besieged rebel-held neighborhoods of Syria's third-largest city, Homs. (AP Photo/SANA) (The Associated Press)

In this photo taken on Sunday Feb. 9, 2014, and released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian Arab Red Crescent members in red uniforms carry men injured from shelling into ambulances to evacuate them from the battleground city of Homs, Syria. A Syrian Red Crescent official says around 300 more people were evacuated Monday from besieged rebel-held neighborhoods of Syria's third-largest city, Homs. (AP Photo/SANA) (The Associated Press)

In this photo taken on Sunday Feb. 9, 2014, and released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian army soldiers, top background, look on as two women walk towards a bus to evacuate the battleground city of Homs, Syria. A Syrian Red Crescent official says around 300 more people were evacuated Monday from besieged rebel-held neighborhoods of Syria's third-largest city, Homs. (AP Photo/SANA) (The Associated Press)

The Syrian government has allowed 111 men of fighting age to leave rebel-held areas of the besieged city of Homs after they were questioned and cleared of rebel links.

Syria state TV on Tuesday quoted Homs governor Talal Barrazi as saying the men, aged between 16 and 54, have left Homs during the U.N.-brokered cease-fire the day before.

Barrazi says the men were "cleared after they handed themselves over to the authorities."

The report came as aid workers rush to evacuate even more people from Homs. About 800 civilians, mostly women and elderly, have already been evacuated from Homs since Friday, when the truce went into effect.

Before the evacuations began, authorities said that gunmen who surrender and renounce violence will be allowed to return to normal life.