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    26-Aug-2016

Tears as Evacuation Begins for Symbol of Syria's Revolt

 

AFP

 

Syrian rebels and their families began evacuating the town of Daraya outside the capital Damascus on Friday, under a deal agreed with the government after a four-year army siege.
 
The fighters and their families left the devastated town on buses accompanied by ambulances and Red Crescent vehicles, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
 
The first bus to emerge from the town carried mostly children, elderly people and women.
 
Additional buses carried rebels, some carrying individual weapons, as allowed under the terms of the deal to evacuate the town.
 
As the buses carrying rebels came out, government troops waved their weapons in the air in celebration and taunted the evacuating fighters by chanting pro-government slogans.
 
A military source told AFP that around 300 rebels and their families would also be evacuated from Daraya on Friday.
 
The evacuation, which is part of a deal between the government and opposition fighters in Daraya announced on Thursday, is expected to run until Saturday.
 
Rebels are being allowed to leave with their personal weapons and have been promised safe transit to opposition-held Idlib city.
 
Civilians are expected to be transferred to government-run reception centers for processing and resettlement.
 
Earlier in the day, residents bid farewell to each other, as well as their homes and neighborhoods, a local rebel fighter told AFP.
 
"This is the hardest moment, everyone is crying, young and old," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
 
An estimated 8,000 people had remained in Daraya despite a siege that began in late 2012 and constant government bombardment.
 
Daraya is located just 15 minutes drive from the capital and lies even closer to the government's vital Mazzeh air base.
 
It was one of the first towns to erupt in anti-government protests in March 2011 and the evacuation has provoked anger and bitterness among opposition supporters.
 
The local rebel fighter said residents were weeping as they prepared to leave.
 
"People are saying goodbye to one another, children are bidding their schools farewell, mothers are saying goodbye to the martyrs in the graves," he said.
 
"People are gathering their memories and the few possessions they have left to preserve the memory of the four years of siege, hunger and shelling, and as a reminder to the international community that let them down without any guilt," he said.
 
- Daraya 'completely destroyed' -
 
He said the decision to evacuate the town had been taken because of deteriorating humanitarian conditions.
 
"The town is no longer habitable, it has been completely destroyed," he said.
 
Daraya has been seen as a symbolic bastion of the uprising that began with peaceful protests against Assad's government, before devolving into a war that has killed over 290,000 people.
 
Just one food aid convoy entered the town since late 2012, in June, shortly after a single convoy carrying medicine entered.
 
The arrival of the food aid was followed by heavy regime bombardment that residents said stalled distribution.
 
According to the United Nations, nearly 600,000 live under siege across Syria, most surrounded by government forces, although rebels and jihadists also use the tactic.
 
In several places, lengthy government sieges have prompted rebels to agree evacuation deals with the regime, prompting activists to accuse Damascus of using "starve or surrender" tactics.
 
In Geneva on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met to discuss efforts to resume Syrian peace talks.
 
The conflict has been further complicated by a Turkish military incursion into northern Syria this week to fight the Islamic State jihadist group and halt advancing Kurdish fighters.
 
 

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