Dozens of buses on Wednesday entered two government loyalist towns under siege from rebels in the northwest province of Idlib, as part of a deal to evacuate residents to government-controlled areas, according to state news agency, SANA.

Some 6,000 people will leave, emptying out the mostly Shia towns of al-Foua and Kefraya, a commander in the regional alliance that backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told the Reuters news agency.

"What are we going to do with our land and property? Oh, my hometown," a 42-year-old who wished to remain anonymous told AFP news agency.

"I pray this will go well."

Rebels from Hay'et Tahrir al-Sham - a group formerly linked to al-Qaeda - and Iran-backed forces agreed to the deal to evacuate people in return for the release of more than 1,500 civilians and rebels in state prisons, sources said on Tuesday.

A deal for the evacuation of residents from the two Shia towns was first reached in April 2017 but had only partially materialised with only a group of people evacuated to government-held areas.

Politics of evacuation

The April evacuation was halted after a blast killed 150 people, including 72 children.

Iran, which backs Assad against the mainly Sunni rebels and has expanded its military role in Syria, has long taken an interest in the fate of the Shia in the two towns.

In the past two years, thousands of people, mostly from rebel-held areas, have been forced to move to territories controlled by the rebels as part of evacuation deals.

The opposition has consistently maintained that such evacuation deals amount to forced demographic change and deliberate displacement of Sunni populations away from the country's urban centres.

They accuse Tehran of attempting to change the demographics in areas close to Damascus with the goal of partitioning the country.

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Another opposition source said the resumption of talks was aimed at deterring a potential military campaign by pro-government forces on the two towns.

Idlib is part of a de-escalation deal - signed by Iran, Russia and Turkey - that calls for the cessations of hostilities between rebel groups and government forces.

The agreement, which initially included Eastern Ghouta in the northern Damascus countryside and Deraa province in the south, has already been broken with government forces, backed by Russian air support, in control of much of the territory.</s>Thousands of residents from two rebel-besieged loyalist towns in northwestern Syria have been evacuated to government-controlled territory as part of a deal that will see hundreds of detainees released from state-run prisons.

The last remaining residents of the predominantly Shia towns of al-Foua and Kefraya, estimated at 6,000, departed after more than a hundred buses arrived early on Thursday to transport them to government-held territory in Aleppo province.

On Wednesday, rebels from Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham - a group formerly linked to al-Qaeda - and Iran-backed forces reached an agreement to evacuate people in exchange for the release of more than 1,500 civilians and rebels held in state prisons.

Thursday's evacuation began with ambulances ferrying out the sick to a government checkpoint before 121 buses departed the villages, state-run al-Ikhbariya TV said.

The villages of northern Syria's Idlib province - the last major rebel stronghold in the country - had been under siege for more than three years.

A deal for the evacuation of residents from the two Shia-majority towns was first reached in April 2017 but had only partially materialised with only a group of people evacuated to government-held areas.

The April evacuation was halted after a blast killed 150 people, including 72 children.

Iran, which backs the government of President Bashar al-Assad against the mainly Sunni rebels and has expanded its military role in Syria, has long taken an interest in the fate of the Shia residents of the two towns.

In the past two years, thousands of people, mostly from rebel-held areas, have been forced to move to territories controlled by the rebels as part of evacuation deals.

The opposition has consistently maintained that such evacuation deals amount to forced demographic change and deliberate displacement of Sunni populations away from the country's urban centres.

They accuse Tehran of attempting to change the demographics in areas close to Damascus with the goal of partitioning the country.

Another opposition source said the resumption of talks was aimed at deterring a potential military campaign by pro-government forces on the two towns.

Idlib is part of a de-escalation deal - signed by Iran, Russia and Turkey - that calls for the cessations of hostilities between rebel groups and government forces.

The agreement, which initially included Eastern Ghouta in the northern Damascus countryside and Deraa province in the south, has already been broken with government forces, backed by Russian air support, in control of much of the territory.</s>Buses began evacuating fighters and civilians from two besieged pro-regime towns in Syria early on Thursday morning under a deal that will allow thousands to leave after three years of encirclement.

Fuaa and Kafraya are the last remaining areas under siege in Syria, where government forces have also repeatedly used crippling blockades during the last seven years of war.

The Shiite-majority towns have been besieged for years by rebels and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a jihadist alliance led by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate.

Surrounded and bombed by hostile factions, the towns became a rallying cry for the government and its ally Iran, as well as a playing card in callous rebel hands.

A deal reached on Tuesday between regime-backer Russia and rebel-ally Turkey would see all the residents taken to government-held territory in exchange for prisoner releases from regime jails.

Starting on Wednesday morning, a series of barricades on the road leading into the towns were removed to let dozens of buses in, AFP's correspondent there said.

All residents -- about 6,900 people including fighters and civilians -- are expected to be ferried out, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor and an HTS source.

Just after midnight, buses drove out of Fuaa and Kafraya and into a staging ground in the nearby Suwaghiya area, an AFP correspondent there said.

Armed HTS fighters stood on the roadside as the convoy of evacuees inched past, with pro-government militiamen and regular civilians sitting solemnly on board and staring ahead.

The backs of the busses were piled high with suitcases and duffel bags.

"Thirty-two buses have left so far in a first wave of the evacuations. They form about a third of the total that will leave in the operation, which is expected to be done by Thursday morning," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

There was no immediate confirmation of the departures from state media, which had earlier reported dozens of buses and ambulances entering the towns.

Fuaa and Kafraya came under siege in 2015 as rebels and jihadists overran the surrounding province of Idlib, cutting off access to food and medicine.

The United Nations and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent delivered humanitarian assistance there in tit-for-tat operations with two government-besieged towns near Damascus.

The four towns also saw coordinated evacuation deals.

In April 2017, thousands were bussed out of Fuaa and Kafraya in exchange for parallel evacuations from the towns of Zabadani and Madaya.

But a blast targeting a convoy of evacuees from Fuaa and Kafraya left 150 people dead, most of them civilians and including 72 children.

Traumatised residents left behind have said they are afraid that scenario might repeat itself with the new evacuations.

Security was tight as the buses very slowly exited the besieged towns, with HTS fighters surrounding the evacuee convoy.

Just before midnight, ambulances carrying 15 sick and wounded residents were let out first and sped in the dark towards the Al-Eis crossing, which connects rebel-held Idlib to regime-controlled parts of Aleppo, AFP's correspondent said.

An HTS source said it was a "good will gesture" ahead of the full evacuation.

According to HTS, more than 100 buses would evacuate 6,900 people from Fuaa and Kafraya in exchange for the release of 1,500 people from government-run jails.

There was no immediate word on the prisoner releases on Thursday morning.

The deal, according to the Britain-based Observatory, would also guarantee that Idlib would be spared a military offensive by the regime.

The northwestern province borders Turkey to the northwest but is otherwise almost totally surrounded by regime territory.

It is home to more than two million people, including Syrian civilians and rebels moved out of other opposition-held territory in surrender deals.

Activists and rights groups have warned such population transfers may amount to forced displacement.

As preparations were underway earlier on Wednesday for the transfers from Fuaa and Kafraya, the International Committee of the Red Cross insisted any movement must be voluntary.

"Any evacuations, in Syria, or elsewhere, must follow basic humanitarian rules: Civilians can choose to stay or leave. Civilians must be protected against attacks -- at all times. Evacuations are temporary -- civilians have the right to return," the ICRC wrote on Twitter.

Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011 with protests against President Bashar al-Assad that later spun out into full-fledged war.</s>Turkey has underscored the need for decreasing possible tension in Syria's northwestern Idlib province after some 6,900 pro-regime civilians and fighters left under a Russian and Turkish-backed evacuation deal.

"We do not want the scenario experienced in eastern Ghouta, northern Homs and now in southwestern Syria to be also experienced in Idlib," Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said in a news conference yesterday.

Aksoy also mentioned President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on July 14, saying if the regime advances toward Idlib, Astana agreement would dissipate.

He stressed that the regime tries to find a solution to crisis via military means and added that such ways would not lead to "legitimate ruling."

The evacuation of civilians from the Shiite-majority villages of Fuah and Kafriya in Idlib is now underway after a deal was struck between regime forces and the opposition after months of negotiations. It marks one of the largest population transfers during the Syrian civil war.

According to Anadolu Agency (AA) sources in the region, evacuations began Wednesday evening with 12 ambulances ferrying injured people from both villages, followed by dozens of buses carrying civilians. Under the terms of the agreement, the evacuations will coincide with the release of opposition fighters captured earlier by the Assad regime. Opposition sources told AA that the deal, struck with Iranian negotiators Tuesday, called for the evacuation of 6,900 people from both villages in return for the release of 1,500 detained opposition fighters.

During peace talks in Astana in May 2017, the three guarantor countries – Turkey, Russia and Iran – agreed to establish de-escalation zones in Idlib and parts of Aleppo, Latakia and Hama provinces.

According to the agreement, Turkey is projected to gradually establish 12 observation points, from Idlib's north to south.

Meanwhile, in the south, Bashar Assad is set to recover control of the frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights after opposition fighters in the area agreed to surrender terms, sources on both sides said yesterday.

The opposition in al-Quneitra province at the border with the Israeli-controlled territory has agreed either to accept safe passage to the opposition-held province of Idlib in the northwest or to remain in the area on the state's terms, according to Reuters. After securing Damascus in May, Bashar Assad turned his attention to the opposition in the strategic south where protests against his rule first erupted in 2011. Nearly three weeks of bombardment saw the beleaguered opposition agree with Russia earlier this month to hand over Daraa province, before reaching a similar deal for its capital this week.</s>Buses began evacuating fighters and civilians from two besieged pro-regime towns in Syria early on Thursday morning under a deal that will allow thousands to leave after years of encirclement.

An AFP correspondent counted 20 buses driving out of Fuaa and Kafraya, the last two remaining towns under siege in the war-torn country, where the use of the medieval tactic had become notorious.

Both militiamen and regular civilians could be seen on board the vehicles, as well as stacks of personal belongings.

The evacuations come as part of a deal reached on Tuesday between regime ally Russia and rebel-backer Turkey, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

All residents -- about 6,900 people including fighters and civilians -- are expected to be ferried out, said the Britain-based monitor.

In exchange, the Syrian goverment is expected to release hundreds of prisoners from its detention centres.

The towns came under siege in 2015 as rebels and jihadists overran the surrounding province of Idlib, cutting off access to food and medicine.

Starting early Wednesday, a series of barricades on the road leading into the town were removed to let dozens of vehicles in, an AFP correspondent there said.

State news agency SANA also reported that buses and ambulances had entered the towns under the deal.</s>July 18 (UPI) -- Buses arrived to evacuate residents from two besieged towns in Syria on Wednesday as part of a deal brokered by Russia and Turkey.

A total of 120 buses were sent to evacuate about 7,000 residents from the towns of Foua and Kefraya.

Syrian media reported the buses will resettle the residents of the two towns to the Aleppo suburb of Jibreen.

Residents of a third town, Ishtabrak, are also being evacuated to the coastal region of Latakia.

The evacuation came after Russia and Turkey brokered a deal in which the Syrian government agreed to release about 1,500 rebel prisoners.

Rebel fighters were also evacuated from the southern region of Daraa to the rebel-held city of Idlib.

Daraa Governor Mohammed Khaled al-Hanous congratulated government forces and the residents of Busra al-Sham on what he described as a "great victory."

Last year more than a dozen people died after a car bomb detonated near a bus convoy of Syrian evacuees from the two towns.</s>Several thousand residents evacuated two pro-government towns in northern Syria on Thursday, putting an end to one of the longest sieges of the country’s seven-year civil war.

Fuaa and Kafraya in Idlib province were the last remaining areas under blockade in Syria and a rare example of pro-government towns surrounded by rebel forces.

The Shia-majority towns were besieged for three years by rebels and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a militant alliance led by Syria’s former al-Qaeda affiliate.

Surrounded and bombed by hostile factions, the towns had become a rallying cry for the government and its ally Iran.

A deal was reached on Tuesday between government-backer Russia and rebel-ally Turkey to see the residents taken to government-held territory in exchange for the release of prisoners from government jails.

On Wednesday morning, barricades on the road leading into the towns were removed to let dozens of buses in, AFP’s correspondent there said.

Just after midnight, the buses drove out of Fuaa and Kafraya and Thursday morning were at the village of Al-Eis, crossing from rebel-controlled territory into government-held areas in Aleppo province.

Armed HTS fighters stood on the roadside as the convoy of evacuees inched past, with pro-government militiamen and regular civilians sitting solemnly on board and staring ahead.

‘Entirely empty’

 Some 6,900 civilians and fighters were evacuated and the two towns were now “entirely empty of residents”, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said on Thursday morning.

“As the buses entered regime-held areas, the regime started releasing detainees, as per the deal,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.

According to HTS sources, the evacuation had been agreed in exchange for the release of 1,500 people from government-run jails.

An HTS source said the group’s fighters had entered the towns after the evacuation was complete.

Fuaa and Kafraya came under siege in 2015 as rebels and militants overran the surrounding province of Idlib, cutting off access to food and medicine.

Those forces had allowed the United Nations and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to deliver aid to the towns in exchange for similar deliveries to two government-besieged towns near Damascus.

The four towns also saw coordinated evacuation deals.

In April 2017, thousands were bussed out of Fuaa and Kafraya in exchange for parallel evacuations from the towns of Zabadani and Madaya.

But a blast targeting a convoy of evacuees from Fuaa and Kafraya left 150 people dead, most of them civilians and including 72 children.

Some reports have suggested Tuesday’s deal also involves an agreement to spare Idlib a military offensive by the government.

The province borders Turkey to the northwest but is otherwise almost completely surrounded by government-held territory.

It is home to more than two million people, including Syrian civilians and rebels moved out of other opposition-held territory in surrender deals.

Syria’s conflict erupted in March 2011 with protests against President Bashar al-Assad that escalated into a devastating, complex war.

After losing swathes of territory to rebels in the early years of the conflict, Assad’s forces have managed to regain much of the country since Russian forces intervened in the government’s favour in 2015.

The retaking of second city Aleppo in 2016 marked a major turning point and earlier this year the government retook Eastern Ghouta, the last rebel-held area near the capital Damascus.

Both victories followed crushing government sieges and heavy bombardment.

In recent weeks Russia brokered a deal for rebels to hand over large parts of the southern province of Daraa, considered by many as the birthplace of the anti-Assad revolution.

Fighting has continued in the south though, with at least 15 civilians reported killed in air strikes in Daraa province on Wednesday.</s>A deal was reached on Tuesday for the evacuation of two pro-regime towns in Syria, allowing thousands to leave after three years of encirclement by hardline rebels.

Fuaa and Kafraya are the last remaining towns under siege in Syria, where the medieval tactic was mostly made notorious by government forces in the seven-year war.

Surrounded and bombed by hostile factions, the Shiite-majority towns became both a rallying cry for the government and a playing card in callous rebel hands.

Their residents are all expected to leave under a major agreement reached Tuesday between government ally Moscow and rebel backer Ankara, a war monitor said.

"The deal provides for the total evacuation of residents in the two towns, which are besieged by rebels and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, to regime territory in nearby Aleppo province," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, is a jihadist alliance led by Al-Qaeda's former affiliate in Syria.

Hundreds of people would be released from the regime's notorious detention centres in exchange, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

A source from HTS also confirmed the deal, telling AFP that more than 100 buses would evacuate 6,900 people including fighters and civilians from Fuaa and Kafraya.

The source said 1,500 people would be freed from government-run jails.

The agreement has not been confirmed by any government involved, but Syrian state media reported Tuesday that it had preliminary information on a deal to free "thousands" of people from Fuaa and Kafraya.

The towns came under siege in 2015, as rebels and jihadists overran the surrounding province of Idlib.

That cut off access to food and medicine for their residents outside of United Nations aid deliveries.

The evacuation deal reached Tuesday is not the first for the two tiny towns.

In April 2017, thousands were bussed out Fuaa and Kafraya in exchange for parallel evacuations from two towns near Damascus that were being besieged by the government.

But a blast targeting a convoy of evacuees from Fuaa and Kafraya left 150 people dead, most of them civilians and including 72 children.

Traumatised residents left behind are now afraid that scenario might happen again.

"What are we going to do with our land and property? Oh my hometown," said a 42-year-old resident of Kafraya who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"I pray this will go well -- we still haven't forgotten those that died in the blast," he told AFP on Tuesday.

Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011 with protests gainst President Bashar al-Assad that later spun out into full-fledged war.

Early on in the uprising, Turkey began providing support to rebel groups as Russia and Iran steadfastly backed their man in Damascus.

Those three countries have become the main powerbrokers in Syria, agreeing last year to create four "de-escalation" zones to pave the way for a nationwide ceasefire.

Idlib is part of one such zone. It borders Turkey to the northwest but is otherwise almost totally surrounded by regime territory, prompting fears the government would eventually attack it.

But the Observatory said the terms of the new Russia-Turkey deal included keeping the regime from waging a military operation there.

The Britain-based monitor said Turkish and Russian forces would also jointly patrol a part of the key M5 highway which cuts through Idlib.

The M5 connects Damascus to second city Aleppo in the north.

Analyst Nawar Oliver at the Turkey-based Omran Centre said the evacuation could pave the way for a grand bargain on Idlib.

"Change is inevitably coming to Idlib, but There are numerous predicaments that need to be resolved, including Fuaa and Kafraya, before reaching a final deal," Oliver told AFP.

Assad's forces have already recaptured two of the "de-escalation" zones this year: Eastern Ghouta outside Damascus and an area in central Homs.

They sealed their control over those areas with a blend of military pressure and negotiated surrenders of rebel groups there.

Using the same tactics, they are now close to seizing the third zone in southern Syria, which includes the key provinces of Daraa and Quneitra.

Heavy air strikes on Tuesday battered an area straddling the two governorates, killing 15 civilians across two towns, according to the Observatory.

Tens of thousands of civilians remain displaced in a part of Quneitra just a handful of kilometres (miles) from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

But Israel, like Jordan to Syria's south, has kept the border closed to desperate displaced families fleeing the assault in recent weeks.</s>Residents in northwestern Syria evacuated two Shiite villages on Thursday morning after the Syrian government struck a deal to allow them to leave by pledging to release hundreds of rebel prisoners in exchange.

Some 120 buses carrying approximately 6,900 evacuees had left the towns of al-Foua and Kefraya, taking residents to nearby government-held territory in Aleppo province, a monitoring group said.

"The buses have left in the early hours of the morning and the two towns are completely empty now," Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told news agency dpa.

The villages of al-Foua and Kefraya, located in Idlib province, had been under siege for several years by Sunni Islamist rebels operating in the area. The deal to completely evacuate the towns was brokered by Russia, the main ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, and Turkey, who is backing the Syrian opposition.

Idlib province is home to more than two million people, including Syrian civilians and rebels who had relocated there from other opposition-held territory in other surrender deals.

The government has not provided details on the release of 1,500 rebels from government-run jails, but according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the deal would also spare Idlib from future military offensives by the regime.

After recently recovering territory from rebels in the southwest, Assad is hoping to recover all of Syria through agreements such as the evacuation deal in al-Foua and Kefraya.

But activists and rights groups warned that such large-scale transfers may amount to forced displacement. The International Committee of the Red Cross demanded that any movement of people must be voluntary.

"Any evacuations, in Syria, or elsewhere, must follow basic humanitarian rules: Civilians can choose to stay or leave. Civilians must be protected against attacks — at all times. Evacuations are temporary — civilians have the right to return," the ICRC wrote on Twitter.

The conflict in Syria broke out in March 2011 with protests against Assad and his government. Since then, the conflict has killed an estimated 500,000 people and driven some 11 million from their homes.

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.</s>A long-running siege by Syrian rebels of two pro-regime towns has been lifted after a deal to forcibly displace the entire population in exchange for the release of regime prisoners was completed in the early hours of Thursday.

The agreement between Bashar al-Assad’s regime and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an al-Qaida-linked group, ended a three-year ordeal for people in the towns of Fua and Kefraya but furthered the trend of demographic change and the reshaping of Syria along sectarian and ethnic lines after seven years of civil war.

Buses carrying almost 7,000 people departed the towns and arrived near the city of Aleppo, which is controlled by the Assad regime. The completion of the deal was confirmed by the Syrian state news agency Sana and in a statement by HTS.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said the towns had been emptied. HTS said the area would be declared a military zone and, after inspections were completed, would be open for resettlement by refugees fleeing other parts of Syria.

In rare examples of sieges imposed by rebel groups in Syria, Fua and Kefraya were first blockaded in 2015 after an offensive that ousted forces loyal to Assad from most of the province of Idlib. Since then the towns’ civilians have suffered from food and medicine shortages.

Sieges have been used as a weapon of war most frequently by the Assad regime. The largest siege conducted by the government, of civilians and rebels in the Damascus suburbs of eastern Ghouta, ended three months ago with the capitulation of the opposition.

HTS said it had secured the release of 1,500 prisoners held in government prisons and by the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, which is fighting alongside the Assad regime, in exchange for allowing the safe passage of Fua and Kefraya residents.

Idlib is the last major chunk of territory controlled by rebels fighting to overthrow Assad, after repeated military defeats by government forces backed by Moscow and Tehran secured the regime’s survival. The momentum in the seven-year war is now decidedly in Assad’s favour, but large parts of the country’s east and north remain outside of the regime’s control, in the hands of American-backed Kurdish militias and Turkish-backed proxy fighters.

Idlib is now home to hundreds of thousands of people who have fled the violence in other parts of Syria, sent there after surrender deals forcibly displaced them to the region bordering Turkey. Many fear Idlib will become a killing ground with the conclusion of offensives in other regions of the country, prompting a humanitarian catastrophe.

But speculation is rife that a deal reportedly brokered by Russia and Turkey provides protections against a broad military campaign to reclaim the entire province and potentially cause a new wave of refugees fleeing across the border.

Syrian state media reported that another deal to end the fighting in the country’s south near the border with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights was imminent, another step to the government securing complete control over the area and ending the rebellion there.
The evacuations of Shia towns Al-Fu'ah and Kafriya in the northern Idlib Governorate begin, as part of a deal between rebel forces and the Syrian government.