Four Syrian towns are to be evacuated under an agreement between pro-government forces and rebels, in the latest of a series of deals to end crippling years-long sieges. The agreement, brokered by rebel supporter Qatar and regime ally Iran, is expected to involve more than 30,000 people, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The deal reached late Tuesday involves Zabadani and Madaya, besieged by regime fighters near Damascus, and Shiite-majority Fuaa and Kafraya in northwest Syria that are encircled by rebels. Such evacuations have been touted by President Bashar al-Assad as a way to end his country's six-year war, but his opponents say the regime is redrawing Syria's map with forced displacement.
The conflict has killed more than 320,000 people and forced millions more from their homes. In the central city of Homs, where evacuations from the last rebel-held district resumed last month, a bomb on a bus killing five people on Wednesday, state media said.
The Observatory, a British-based monitor, said the residents of Zabadani, Madaya, Fuaa, and Kafraya are to quit their hometowns over the course of 60 days from next Tuesday. All of the residents of Fuaa and Kafraya are expected to leave, while it was unclear if the evacuations of Madaya and Zabadani would empty the towns completely.
Part of the Yarmuk Palestinian camp south of Damascus is also to be evacuated. "As a goodwill measure, a ceasefire for the towns came into effect overnight," said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman, adding it would last nine months. In all, 32,000 people are expected to be evacuated, he told AFP. Hassan Sharaf, who is coordinating the deal for the government, said a total of 16,000 people would quit Fuaa and Kafraya "in two waves" going first to Aleppo, then on to Latakia and Damascus.
At least 600,000 people are living under siege in Syria, according to the United Nations, with another four million people in so-called "hard-to-reach" areas. The four towns are part of an existing deal reached in 2015 that has seen simultaneous evacuations and aid deliveries, the last of which took place in November.
The new deal, which Syria's Arab Red Crescent will help implement, also stipulates that Syria's government release 1,500 prisoners held for political activism since the uprising began in 2011 but gives no time frame. In Damascus on Wednesday meanwhile, Assad replaced the justice, economy, and development ministers, without giving a reason.
The UN has hosted several rounds of peace talks in Geneva to try to reach a political solution to the conflict. On Wednesday, UN envoy Staffan de Mistura met with opposition delegates and government representatives. And Russia's deputy foreign minister Genady Gatilov held talks with opposition delegates, after meeting government representatives on Monday.