Civilians and rebels who were evacuated from the besieged Damascus suburb of Daraya, after an agreement reached on Thursday between rebels and Syria’s army, arrive in the rebel-controlled city of Idlib August 27, 2016.
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The official SANA news agency reported that 4,000 civilians were to be directed to reception centres and at least 700 rebels escorted to the rebel-held city of Idlib in northwest Syrian.
One Turkish soldier was killed and three more wounded on Saturday in a rocket attack by Kurdish militia on two tanks taking part in Turkey’s military offensive in northern Syria, state media said.
Authorities agreed in June to allow United Nations supplied food deliveries into the suburb under a cessation of hostilities deal, but just one shipment has made it since then.
The first phase of the Darayya agreement to surrender the town to the Syrian government has concluded after more than 300 militants from Liwaa Shuhada Al-Islam and Ajnad Al-Sham were transferred to the Idlib Governorate.
The rebels who don’t want to evacuate can stay inside the town, after settling their criminal records with the government, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor group said.
“The world is watching”.
Daraya’s local council said in an online statement that civilians will be initially taken to the town of Herjalleh in the Western Ghouta suburbs of Damascus and “will move later to places they choose”.
Residents of Daraya, a blockaded Damascus suburb, carry their belongings as they prepare to evacuate on Friday.
An estimated 8,000 people remain in the town, despite a government siege lasting four years and regular government bombardment.
Daraya was the site of some of the first protests against the Assad government in 2011, during the so-called “Arab Spring”, and has been besieged since 2012.
Darayya, once home to 78,000 people and thought to be the site where Paul the Apostle had his conversion on the road to Damascus, was one of the first areas near the capital to join anti-government uprisings and became a byword of the opposition to the rule of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.
Reporting from Geneva, Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor James Bays said the Syrian government’s “starvation of surrender policy has actually worked because they have now managed to close down Daraya and remove everyone from Daraya”.
Sharfan Darwish, spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces’ local group in Manbij, said artillery shelling on Amarneh village, south of Jarablus, continued Friday.
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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. Since early June, Darayya has come under attack nearly daily, with the Syrian government accused of using barrel bombs, shelling and incendiary weapons. Minutes later, Khandakani said another barrel bomb was dropped, injuring an ambulance driver, and hampering rescue efforts.
