Syrian troops pulled out from the flashpoint protest city of Deir Ezzor on Tuesday, August 16.

As AP reported, hundreds of residents sprinkled troops with rice and flowers - in a traditional Arab greeting - as they withdrew from the city in a military convoy bearing a banner that read “Soldiers of Assad.”

Rights groups say a brutal crackdown on dissent by Assad’s security forces has killed more than 1,800 civilians since mid-March, while 416 security forces have also died. According to activists, the operation in Deir Ezzor, the largest city in eastern city, cost 30 lives.

Syrian troops last week withdrew from another hotbed of dissent, Hama, after a 10-day operation that fuelled outrage abroad as authorities press on with their deadly crackdown on dissent through the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.