"Significant blow"

"... Rebels in Homs are to abandon their stronghold in the Old City area in a deal that means the Syrian military will control of all but one neighbourhood of the country's third city....
If the deal is honoured, it will place Syria's resurgent military in firm control of a strategically important strip from Latakia in the north-west to Damascus – a significant blow to the opposition's three-year campaign to oust Bashar al-Assad...."