First rebels quit Syria enclave under Russia-brokered deal
harasta (syria) — Syrian rebels and their families began leaving Syria’s Eastern Ghouta on Thursday under the first evacuation deal in the shrinking opposition enclave outside Damascus.
The agreement could empty one of three rebel-held pockets in the region and mark a major advance in government efforts to secure the nearby capital. It could also increase pressure on rebels to follow suit in the two other opposition-held pockets of the besieged enclave.
State television said around 1,130 people — including more than 230 fighters — had boarded buses from the Eastern Ghouta town of Harasta, until now held by the Ahrar Al Sham rebel group.
A military source said the rebels and accompanying civilians had boarded buses and were in a buffer zone, waiting to cross into regimecontrolled territory.
Another military source said around 2,000 people were expected to leave in total, including around 700 fighters on Thursday.
Ahrar Al Sham spokesman Munzer Fares said the evacuations could last several days. They followed renewed air strikes in Ghouta early on Thursday which killed 20 civilians, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Rebel fire on Thursday killed four people in Damascus, state television said.
The rebels and their families will be transported to the northwestern province of Idlib, which is held by a myriad of militants, conservatives and secular groups, many with links to Turkey.
The evacuation from Harasta will further isolate the rebel groups that control the remaining two pockets of Eastern Ghouta and pile pressure on them to accept similar deals.
Syrian Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar said that Ahrar Al Sham had negotiated with the Russian Centre for Reconciliation and that Damascus was not directly involved.
Nawar Oliver, an analyst at the Turkey-based Omran Centre, said fighters in Harasta “were not able to impose a single one of their conditions”.
Opposition figures in Ghouta said talks were under way for a deal to evacuate rebels from the enclave’s main town, Douma. —