Syrian rebels begin enclave evacuation

ARBIN, Syria - Rebels and civilians started evacuating the penultimate opposition-held pocket of eastern Ghouta on Saturday, as the government moved ever closer to taking full control of the battered enclave.

Seventeen buses transporting 981 rebels and their families evacuated areas through a crossing point on the outskirts of the town of Arbin.

The convoy headed toward rebel-held areas in the northwestern province of Idlib, under a recently-reached deal with the Syrian government under Russian mediation.

Ahead of the rebels' evacuation, a total of eight people kidnapped by the rebels in eastern Ghouta were released, as part of the deal that was reached a day earlier.

Talks are still ongoing for the final area around Ghouta's largest town of Douma, but negotiated withdrawals have already been reached to clear two other zones.

Fighters from the Islamist Faylaq al-Rahman rebel group were the latest readying to leave eastern Ghouta, following in the wake of another hard line group that quit the town of Harasta in the past few days for Idlib.

After several hours of delay, fighters and civilians boarded buses in the rebel-held town of Arbin and drove to a checkpoint dividing opposition-held territory from government forces.

"Several buses carrying 500 fighters and their families have reached the Arbin crossing, in preparation for their departure from Ghouta," state news agency SANA reported, adding that evacuations would continue on Sunday.

The evacuations from the towns of Arbin, Zamalka, and Ain Tarma had been scheduled to begin on Saturday morning, but a military source said they were delayed due to "logistical issues", including unblocking and demining the route they would take.

Buses entered around 4 pm, and fighters, their families, and other civilians began boarding them in Arbin as night fell.

State media said on Saturday that more than 105,000 civilians have fled Ghouta in recent weeks.

The army has opened three "corridors" for people to flee from newly-recaptured territory into government zones.

Once the government had whittled down rebel territory to three isolated pockets, it pursued separate negotiations with the factions in each zone.

The first deal brokered by Russia was reached with the hard line Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham for the town of Harasta and saw more than 4,500 people, including over 1,400 fighters, evacuated to Idlib.

The second agreement was reached with Faylaq al-Rahman on Friday and provides for evacuations, medical treatment for wounded civilians and fighters, and the release of detainees held by the rebel group.

Syrian state TV on Saturday interviewed eight men who said they had been detained by Faylaq and were released under the settlement.

Sabah al-Salloum desperately hoped her son Munzer, kidnapped four years ago by Ghouta rebels, would be among them.

"I heard from the news the kidnapped would be released, and I'm losing my nerves waiting. I couldn't sleep," Salloum said.

With the conflict grinding on into its eighth year, Syria's government is more determined than ever to clear opposition holdouts around the capital to halt rebel rocket fire onto Damascus.

Afp - Xinhua

(China Daily 03/26/2018 page11)