War in Syria: Fighters from rival groups given safe passage to borders

The United Nations and foreign governments have tried to broker local ceasefires and safe passage as steps towards the goal of ending Syria’s civil war

Syrian opposition fighters and their families prepare to evacuate the town of Zabadani (AP)

Several hundred fighters and civilians were evacuated from two besieged areas in Syria today under a deal between warring parties backed by the United Nations.

At least 130, mostly wounded, rebel fighters left the town of Zabadani for the nearby Lebanese border at the same time as 350 fighters and civilians from pro-government besieged Shia towns in north-western Syria headed for the Turkish border.

Under the deal, the fighters from the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham group and other local Syrian rebel factions holed up in Zabadani for months have been promised safe passage to Beirut airport and then on to Turkey. At the same time, families and fighters in two besieged Shia towns in the mainly rebel-held north-western province of Idlib were heading to Turkey and were then due to fly to Beirut.

Zabadani was one of the rebels’ last strongholds along the border. Before the outbreak of the Syrian conflict it had also formed part of a supply route for weapons sent by Syria to the Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah.

The United Nations and foreign governments have tried to broker local ceasefires and safe passage as steps towards the goal of ending Syria’s civil war, in which more than 250,000 people have been killed since 2011.

Reuters