Rare deal sees Syrian fighters’ evacuation from key town under way

The evacuation of more than 450 fighters and civilians including wounded started Monday from three Syrian towns under a rare deal between the regime and rebels, a monitor said. A convoy of buses and ambulances has reached Zabadani to take the fighters, and some civilians, to Beirut. The evacuation is part of a truce agreed in September covering Zabadani and two towns in the north which had been under siege from rebel forces. About 300 families from those towns are also being given safe passage.

More than 120 fighters and wounded have started to leave Zabadani.

Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman

Those leaving from Zabadani will travel across the border to Lebanon and fly from Beirut to Turkey, before travelling back to opposition-held areas in Syria. President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has previously agreed to several ceasefires with rebel groups. These “local reconciliation” deals usually provide for rebels to lay down their weapons in exchange for allowing in humanitarian aid to inhabitants living under siege. More than 250,000 people have died in Syria since the beginning of the nearly five-year war.

Middle East Zabadani