Darayya saw some of the first protests against the Syrian government, an uprising that transformed into a full-blown civil conflict.
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“The city was destroyed over our heads and we are now not leaving a city but a pile of rubble”, said Hamam al Sukri, a resident who had been living in a basement with his six-member family.
Peeping from the window of one the vehicles was a small child no older than four or five, too young to remember life before the siege.
Syrian state news operator SANA reported that “a reconciliation agreement” had been struck in Darayya, a short 15-minute drive from the center of Damascus, “so as to empty it of arms and gunmen in preparation for the return of all state institutions and the inhabitants of the city”.
An estimated 8,000 people have remained in Daraya despite a siege that began in late 2012 and constant government bombardment.
Daraya is the latest rebel-held area to surrender to government troops following years of siege.
Residents of Daraya, a blockaded Damascus suburb, carry their belongings as they prepare to evacuate on Friday.
The office of UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura sounded a note of caution saying it was “imperative that people of Darayya are protected in any evacuation that takes place, and that this takes place voluntarily”. It is said that the families of the fighters can go with them, but nothing is confirmed yet.
There have been previous deals outside United Nations control to allow similar evacuations of besieged fighters and civilians, or to let people return to their homes after ceasefires were agreed. Civilians will be taken to Kesweh, south of Daraya. During that time, the city received just two aid deliveries – only one of which had food in it.
“The whole world is watching”.
A deal on fighting jihadists in Syria could help lead to an end to fighting between the army and its militia allies on one side and non-jihadist rebels opposed to President Bashar al-Assad.
The suburb has been regularly pounded by regime air strikes since the onset of the war and was the scene of one of the conflict’s worst atrocities in 2012 when some 200 people were executed by pro-regime forces.
Weapons used include barrel bombs – cheap munitions packed with explosives and shrapnel before being rolled out of helicopters – which were condemned for inflicting indiscriminate casualties in civilian areas by a UN Security Council resolution.
In recent weeks, the army has escalated its use of barrel and incendiary bombs there. Other civilians were escorted to shelters in government-controlled suburbs of Damascus.
Syrian rebels and their families began evacuating a long-besieged Damascus suburb Friday as part of an agreement reached with the government following four years of grueling airstrikes and siege that left the suburb in ruins.
Herjalleh is the site of a government housing project for displaced people.
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Syrian rebel-groups backed by Turkey say they are clashing with fighters affiliated with Kurdish forces in northern Syria, in a bid to wrestle control of territory from them south of a town they recently seized from Islamic State militants. Those who did would be taken to Herjalleh.
