Hundreds evacuated from four Syria towns

rashidin (Syria) — Hundreds of civilians and fighters who have been under crippling siege for more than two years left four Syrian towns in fleets of buses on Friday under a delayed evacuation deal.

There has been a string of such agreements through Syria’s six-year civil war. They have been touted by the government as the best way to end the fighting but have been controversial with the rebels who say they are starved out.

Critics say the population movements are permanently changing the ethnic and religious map, but in an exclusive interview on Wednesday President Bashar Al Assad insisted they were only temporary and people would return to their homes once the terrorists had been defeated.

The evacuation of the four towns — two besieged by the army, and two by the rebels — had been due to start on April 4.

But implementation of the deal brokered by rebel supporter Qatar and government ally Iran late last month was repeatedly delayed.

At least 80 buses left the government-held towns of Fuaa and Kafraya in Idlib province in the northwest, a correspondent in rebel-held territory said.

They arrived at a marshalling point in Rashidin, west of government-held second city Aleppo.

Most of the evacuees from the two mainly Shia towns were women, children or elderly people.

Dozens of rebel fighters, including extremists of Al Qaeda’s former Syria affiliate, Fateh Al Sham Front, stood guard, the correspondent reported.

All of Idlib province bar the two towns is held by an increasingly uneasy alliance between the militants and radical rebels.

A civilian who was travelling in one of the evacuation buses from the rebel-held towns of Madaya and Zabadani said the operation began at around 6am.

“We just left now — around 2,200 people in around 65 buses,” Madaya resident Amjad Al Maleh said by telephone.

“Most of the passengers are women and children who started gathering yesterday evening and spent the night in the cold waiting.” He said that rebel fighters among the evacuees had been allowed to keep their light weapons. — AFP