Syria: Rebels and Civilians To Evacuate Besieged Daraya in Deal

Syrian army soldiers in Daraya
Syrian army soldiers gather at the entrance of a damaged building in the government-controlled part of the besieged town of Daraya on August 26, 2016, as thousands of rebel fighters and civilians prepared to evacuate... Youssef Karwashan/AFP/Getty Images

Medical authorities arrived in the besieged Syrian town of Daraya on Friday after a deal was struck between rebels and the government for the evacuation of the remaining thousands of people.

Ambulances and Red Crescent vehicles entered the town to help the many affected by a four-year-long government siege. Some 8,000 people are estimated to remain in the town despite the siege and government strikes.

Civilians have suffered shortages of vital food, medical and power supplies, and only received their first aid provisions in June after a four-year delay.

Daraya sits just a 15-minute drive southwest of the Syrian capital, Damascus, and 700 armed fighters in the city will leave to relocate to Idlib city, controlled by rebels, in northwest Syria, and 4,000 civilians will be transferred to government shelters, according to Syrian state media.

The two armed groups that controlled the town were Ajnad al-Sham and the Martyrs of Islam and the coalition Army of Conquest controls the majority of Idlib province, where the rebels are to travel.

"Seven hundred armed men with their personal weapons will leave Daraya to head to the (rebel-controlled) city of Idlib, while thousands of men and women with their families will be taken to reception centers," said the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).

The evacuation is viewed as a major defeat for the opposition, who have resisted government pressure for four years, and a major success for the Assad regime in what was one of the first towns to launch protests against his rule in March 2011.

Elsewhere, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov are meeting in Geneva on Friday in hope of agreeing a deal on cooperation between the two countries on fighting radical Islamist groups in Syria.

Washington hopes that a deal will lead to a ceasefire between the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and rebels not classified as jihadis in the five-year-long civil war.

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