Takfiri militants to quit their last strongholds in Syria’s western provinces of Homs and Hama under a Russia-brokered deal with the Damascus government.

The evacuation began on Monday, when the first batch of the militants and their families left the town of Rastan in Homs through a corridor.

On the first day of the evacuation process, which is expected to last a week, more than 800 militants and their families were bused out and transported to militant-held areas in the northern city of Jarablus and the neighboring province of Idlib.

The outgoing buses are escorted by the Russian military police.

The areas in Homs include Rastan as well as the towns of Houla and Talbiseh and the villages around them.

The deal came about on May 2, when militants with several factions of the so-called Free Syrian Army agreed to disarm and return those parts to government control.

Damascus and Moscow have now focused their joint efforts on a small enclave south of the capital, which holds a few hundreds of terrorists with the Daesh Takfiri group.

Since February, the Syrian army backed by Russia, has been engaged in a major military push to cleanse Damascus and the surrounding areas of terrorist groups.