Reports: Ceasefire reached in Syria's "capital of the revolution"

HOMS, Syria -- Syria's government and rebels agreed to a ceasefire Friday in the battleground city of Homs aimed at allowing hundreds of fighters holed up in its old quarters to evacuate, a move that would surrender almost total control of the city once known as the "capital of the revolution" to President Bashar Assad's forces.

If rebel fighters do leave, the capture of Homs, Syria's third largest city, would be a significant victory for Assad, weeks before presidential elections set for June 3.

The 48-hour cease-fire deal, reported by opposition activists and a pro-government TV station, came after weeks of unprecedented pounding of rebel-held districts by government forces. In a sign the truce came into effect, an Associated Press team in Homs on Friday said it was unusually quiet, with no shots fired from either side.

Still, the deal could potentially collapse if there are last-minute disputes over the terms of evacuation and some rebels decide to hold out.

"This isn't what we wanted, but it's all we could get," Beibars Tilawi told The Associated Press in a Skype interview. "The regime wanted to take control of the heart of the revolution." Evacuations may start on Saturday, he said.

Residents of Homs, in the central western plains of Syria, were among the first to rise fiercely against Assad's rule three years ago, earning it the nickname of the "capital of the revolution." After waves of anti-Assad protests by its residents, rebels seized control of much of the city and Homs quickly became the focus of the worst violence of the uprising, now in its fourth year.

Homs, 80 miles north of Damascus with a pre-war population of around 1.2 million, is particularly important for its centrality. It links the capital with Aleppo in the north - the country's largest city and another key battleground.

Blocks of Homs have been blasted to rubble in the grueling battles as Assad's forces fought to wrest it back. For more than a year, government troops have blockaded rebels inside a string of districts spread over some eight miles, causing widespread hunger and weakening the fighters.

But a hardcore group remained fighting, dispatching explosive-rigged cars into government-controlled districts of Homs, killing dozens of people, mostly civilians. Most recently, a double car bombing on Tuesday killed over 50 people.

Some rebels and activists in Homs have negotiating over a truce for at least two months, but the bulk of the rebels refused to agree until the final, violent push of fighting, activists said. United Nations officials oversaw the agreement, according to Tilawi.

U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq official said the organization had officials on the ground trying to work with the parties to make sure that there could be an agreement on Homs. He said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon supports the cease-fire negotiations and has been pushing for an agreement.

The U.N. helped oversee the evacuation of hundreds of civilians from Homs' rebel-held neighborhoods in February.

There was no immediate comment by Syrian officials.

On Friday, Syrian army soldiers with machine guns at the multiple checkpoints inside the city appeared relaxed. The facades of buildings close to them were battered by shrapnel from mortar fire in recent days.

At the checkpoints, posters of Assad - many with him smiling confidently - hung off sandbags and makeshift barriers made of truck tires, with the Syrian national flag fluttering overhead.

The 48-hour truce began Friday, said Tilawi and another activist who goes by the nickname Thaer Khalidiya, who is based in countryside north of Homs. The deal was also reported by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict, and the Al-Manar TV channel, owned by Assad's Lebanese Hezbollah allies, as well as by Lebanese channel Al-Mayadeen.

It wasn't immediately clear how the rebels would leave Homs - or if all rebel districts in the city had agreed to the deal.

Tilawi said the fighters would leave in groups, beginning from Saturday. They will be taken to rebel-held provincial towns north of Homs. He estimated at least 1,000 rebels and activists had to be evacuated. The rebels belonged to all factions, including the al-Qaida based Nusra Front, he said.

He and other activists cautioned that the deal was extremely fragile.

"We don't trust the regime. If there's any shooting or traps set, the whole thing will fall apart," he said. "We are going to try get out the first group of fighters and see."

Also Friday, two car bombs struck two small pro-government villages in the central Syrian province of Hama, killing 18 people, including 11 children, state-run television said. The two villages, Jadreen and Humayri, are about a 20-minute drive apart, but it wasn't immediately clear if the two attacks were coordinated.

More than 150,000 people have been killed in Syria's conflict since it began in March 2011.

Pro-government forces are trying to push back rebels ahead of presidential elections set for June 3.

In recent weeks, Assad's forces largely cleared rebels from a broad swath of territory south of Homs between the capital, Damascus, and the Lebanese border, breaking important rebel supply lines there. Rebels have also capitulated in several towns around Damascus after blockades that caused widespread hunger and suffering.