Syria: evacuation of rebels and families from Darayya under way

Opposition fighters and families to leave town outside Damascus
after four-year siege under deal with Assad government

Martin Chulov and Kareem Shaheen Beirut
Friday 26 August 2016 16.12 BST

Aid workers have begun evacuating thousands of civilians from Darayya, a suburb of Damascus subjected to four years of siege and whose last remaining hospital was destroyed last week by an airstrike.

The evacuation, which will leave behind none of Darayya’s original residents, began after opposition fighters and the regime of Bashar al-Assad agreed to a deal that would end the blockade and allow civilians and militants to leave for other parts of Damascus and northern Syria

The UN and Red Crescent are overseeing the evacuation, which is taking place almost exactly four years after a massacre in the town by government troops, one of the war’s single worst atrocities, described by the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, as “appalling and brutal”

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Under the terms of the deal, the 5,500 remaining civilians in the town, will be relocated to other suburbs of Damascus and rural villages. The remaining 1,500 fighters will surrender their weapons and be sent to opposition-held territory in the province of Idlib, near the Turkish border. They are expected to depart on Saturday.

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