Busses transporting residents and fighters from the towns of Fuaa and Kefraya arrive in the Syrian regime-held territory of the al-Eis crossing point south of Aleppo. — AFP photo
AL-EIS, Syria: Several thousand residents evacuated two pro-regime towns in northern Syria yesterday, 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 Shiite-majority towns were besieged for three 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 had become a rallying cry for the government and its ally Iran.
A deal was reached Tuesday between regime-backer Russia and rebel-ally Turkey to see the residents taken to government-held territory in exchange for the release of prisoners from regime 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 regime-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.
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 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 jihadists overran the surrounding province of Idlib, cutting off access to food and medicine. — AFP