Hundreds of people from opposite sides in Syria’s civil war were evacuated from contested areas on Monday under a UN-backed truce, with one group heading to Turkey and another en route to areas controlled by Syrian President Bashar Assad.
One group, with more than 100 rebels and family members, crossed from Syria into Lebanon in buses and ambulances, and then took off from Beirut airport for Turkey, a main ally of fighters battling to overthrow Assad, airport officials said.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorised to discuss the operation.
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The other group, residents of two insurgent-besieged Shiite villages in northern Syria, was evacuated first to Turkey in similar vehicles before departing for Beirut from Hatay airport, said Izzet Sahin, a spokesman for the Turkish Islamic charity organisation IHH.
Activists and media reports say these people are heading to a suburb of the Syrian capital, Damascus, which is under the control of Assad’s forces.
The truce deal reached in September, which provides for the transfer of thousands of Shiite and Sunni civilians and fighters, is one of a number of ground level deals to end fighting in parts of Syria. Earlier this month, scores of fighters and their families began leaving a rebel-held neighbourhood in the central city of Homs after several years of combat.