Syria prisoner exchange begins
Deal means 30,000 people leave four embattled towns
BEIRUT // A deal to evacuate four besieged Syrian towns began yesterday with an exchange of prisoners between rebels and government forces.
Thousands of people, civilians and fighters, were expected to begin leaving government-held Fuaa and Kafraya and opposition-controlled Madaya and Zabadani.
The evacuations of the four besieged towns came under an agreement brokered by rebel supporter Qatar and government ally Iran last month.
The opposition released 12 prisoners, nine of whom appeared to be suffering injuries. They arrived in government- held Aleppo city along with eight bodies.
Syrian state news agency Sana said the prisoners – four children and eight women – had been transferred with the bodies of “eight martyrs” from “terrorist groups in Idlib province”.
It said the exchange of prisoners marked the start of the “implementation of the first phase of the agreement”.
Sana said that “19 militants” were transferred from Fuaa and Kafraya at the same time. A source in the extremist Tahrir Al Sham alliance confirmed the exchange.
Fuaa and Kafraya are government-held Shiite-majority villages in the otherwise rebel-controlled province of Idlib.
Madaya and Zabadani are opposition enclaves surrounded by government forces in Damascus province. The exchange marks the beginning of the implementation of the deal to clear the four towns, as well as part of the Yarmouk Palestinian camp in southern Damascus.
Negotiators and residents said buses entered Madaya and Zabadani yesterday morning, and people gathered their belongings to leave.
But a government coordinator for the negotiations said vehicles were yet to arrive at Fuaa and Kafraya.
More than 30,000 people are expected to be moved out under the deal, which was postponed after objections from both sides and tensions following a suspected chemical weapons attack on a rebel-held town in Idlib province.
All 16,000 residents of Fuaa and Kafraya are expected to leave, heading to government- held Aleppo, the coastal province of Latakia or Damascus.
Civilian residents of Madaya and Zabadani will reportedly be allowed to remain if they so choose.
Those who leave, along with rebels, will head to opposition territory in Idlib.
The four towns are part of an agreement reached in 2015 that required aid deliveries and evacuations be carried out in all areas simultaneously.
But access has been limited, with food and medical shortages causing malnutrition, illness and even death among besieged residents.
The UN said 4.72 million Syrians are in hard-to-reach areas, including 600,000 people under siege, mostly by the Syrian army, but also by rebel forces or ISIL terrorists.
The evacuations of the four besieged towns came under an agreement brokered by Qatar and Iran last month