Syrian rebels to start evacuation from Damascus' southern districts
Syrian rebels in Damascus' southern countryside began handing over their heavy weaponry to the government on Friday, before evacuating to northern Syria as part of a UN-mediated deal, sources said.
A total of 18 busses escorted by two UN vehicles and a Syrian security convoy entered the rebel-held district of al-Qadam in the southern countryside of the capital Damascus to take heavy weaponry from the militants before their evacuation, a well-informed source told Xinhua on Friday.
Handing the heavy weapons to the Syrian government is part of a deal concluded between the rebels and the Syrian army, after which the evacuation will start, most likely on Saturday, the source said.
More than 3,500 militants and their families, mostly with the Islamic State (IS) and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, will be evacuated from al-Hajar al-Aswad and al-Qadam to rebel-held areas in northern Syria, namely to the IS' de facto capital al-Raqqa and the town of Mare in the countryside of the northern province of Aleppo, the source said, adding that preparations are still going on for the commencement of the evacuation process.
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