More than 3,000 people were evacuated from Syria’s Damascus suburb of Daraya Saturday, following a deal to end a four-year siege, according to a human rights group, NBC News reported.
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It provides a further boost for the Syrian army as it fights militants for control over Aleppo, Syria’s largest city.
“The Darayya file is now closed after the evacuation of all the civilians, armed men and their families under the agreement” reached on Thursday between the government and the militants, Syrian state television said.
“For almost four years, residents of Daraya have lived under siege, with civilians being starved to death by government forces”.
Black smoke rose on the horizon – caused by the rebels burning their belongings before evacuating, according to Syrian army soldiers.
The total number of evacuees was not immediately clear.
Situated only 15 minutes from Damascus, Daraya was one of the first towns in Syria to rise up against the government of Bashar Al-Assad’s and became a symbol of the Syrian resistance.
Daraya had been ravaged by constant army bombardment, and only a single aid convoy, last June, reached the town since it came under siege in late 2012.
Deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Daraya have always been cause for concern and the United Nations said it would send a delegation into the town to assess civilian needs.
“With our blood and our souls, we sacrifice ourselves for you, O Bashar!” soldiers chanted of President Bashar al-Assad as the buses drove by.
The loss of Daraya is a bitter blow for the forces of the Syrian opposition. “It was the first time for them”, said 30-year-old Houda.
At the entrance to the reception centre in Hrajela, children played under a blazing sun as Red Crescent volunteers distributed mattresses, blankets and food.
Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Gaziantep on the Turkish side of the Syria-Turkey border, said the rebels were “forced to sign the deal”.
The UN said that it had not been consulted on the evacuation plans, with special Syrian envoy Staffan de Mistura saying it was “imperitive” that Daraya residents be protected and evacuated only voluntarily. Long sieges have compelled opposition forces to abandon territory, which has encouraged the government to adopt “surrender or starve” tactic even more widely.
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Daraya was seen as a symbolic bastion of the March 2011 uprising in Syria that began with peaceful protests against Assad’s government, before degenerating into a war that has killed more than 290,000 people.
