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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Syria Regime, Rebels Reach Evacuation Deal in Southern Damascus, including Paleo “refugee camp” |
| 2018-04-30 |
| [AnNahar] The Syrian government and rebels have reached a deal to evacuate opposition fighters from an area of southern Damascus near the site of a regime offensive against jihadists, state media said Sunday. The announcement comes more than a week into a regime assault to oust Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... group fighters from the capital's southern suburbs, including the Paleostinian refugee camp of Yarmuk. On Sunday, state news agency SANA said a deal had been reached to evacuate opposition fighters and members of their families from rebel-held areas east of Yarmuk. SANA reported "an agreement reached between the Syrian government and terrorist groups in southern Damascus, in the areas of Yalda, Babila and Beit Sahem," using its usual term for all rebels. The deal gives fighters the choice between leaving the area with their families or handing over their weapons and staying, SANA said. The reported deal is the latest in a string of such agreements that have seen the regime retake areas near the capital after rebel withdrawals. Such a deal around Yalda could allow the regime to deploy forces on the eastern edges of Yarmuk after other units advanced towards the camp from the west, a Britannia-based war monitor said. Over the past two days, the army has retaken large parts of the district of Qadam on Yarmuk's western flank, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights added. On Saturday, IS seized a hospital and surrounding buildings on the eastern edges of Yarmuk as it tried to push towards Yalda, the Observatory said. On Sunday, regime war planes pounded Yarmuk and the neighboring district of Hajar al-Aswad, it said. Yarmuk and its surroundings are now the jihadist group's largest urban redoubt in Syria and neighboring Iraq, after IS lost most of the swathes of territory it once held in both countries. The jihadists have held parts of Yarmuk and Hajar al-Aswad since 2015, and overran Qadam in a surprise assault last month. At least 85 regime fighters and 74 IS jihadists have been killed in ten days of fighting in southern Damascus, the Observatory says. The announcement of an evacuation deal on Yalda and nearby areas comes after the regime reconquered what was once a key rebel bastion east of Damascus earlier this month. Eastern Ghouta fell after a brutal military operation and a series of similar evacuation deals brokered by regime ally Russia that saw tens of thousands of residents bused to northern Syria. More than 350,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since the start of Syria's civil war in 2011 with a deadly crackdown on anti-government protests. Deal agreed to evacuate Syria's Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp: state media [AlAhram] A deal has been reached for the evacuation of the Paleostinian refugee camp of Yarmuk where Islamic State group fighters have been holed up in southern Damascus, state media reported Sunday. The transfer of "terrorist groups" to rebel-held areas of northwestern Syria would begin on Monday, said the official SANA news agency, which did not name IS jihadists. It comes hours after the Syrian government and rebels agreed to evacuate opposition fighters from the areas of Yalda, Babila and Beit Sahem, also in southern Damascus, according to SANA. |
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