Syria Crisis: Militants Reach Idlib after Surrendering from Daraya

Local Editor

A first group of militants who surrendered in the Syrian town of Daraya had reached the Daesh [Arabic acronym for "ISIS" / "ISIL"]-held territory, activists said Saturday.

At least five buses carrying militants and their families arrived in the Daesh-held city of Idlib in the northwest, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The arrivals were the first since the evacuation of the town just outside Damascus began on Friday under an agreement between the government and the militants.
Daraya had been overran by Takfiri militants, who used civilians as human shields, since late 2012.

Civilian residents of the town, believed to number around 8,000, are also being evacuated. They are being taken to government-run reception centers pending resettlement elsewhere.

Some 300 militants who surrendered to the Syrian government and their families were evacuated during the first part of the operation on Friday, according to a military source, with the departures expected to continue on Saturday.

Some other civilians were also evacuated but no figures were immediately available.

The surrender of the Takfiri militants in Daraya represents a blow for the terrorists and a strategic win for the Syrian government.

In recent months, the Syrian army had made a number of advances outside the capital.

Militant forces withdrew out of Syria's third city Homs last year under a similar evacuation deal.

More than 290,000 people had been killed and over half the population displaced since the war on Syria erupted in 2011.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team