News / Syria

Syria militants begin leaving Dara'a under surrender deal

Sunday, 15 July 2018 2:46 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 15 July 2018 3:10 PM ]

Militants and their families prepare to leave Dara'a, Syria, July 15, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

In Syria, militants and their relatives have begun leaving the southern city of Dara'a, in the wake of a surrender deal with the government to evacuate the region.

Groups of militants got on around 15 buses in Dara’a on Sunday. They have handed over their heavy weapons.

It has been reported that the convoy is headed for the northwestern province of Idlib.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said an estimated 1,400 people were expected to be evacuated in a single group on Sunday.

"Buses began moving from the gathering point towards the edge of the city to be searched," said Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Britain-based group.

The surrender deal was mediated by Russia.

Now that Dara’a is under the Syrian government's control again, the much reported collaboration between anti-Damascus militants and the Israeli regime would effectively be disrupted. Israel has beefed up its military presence in the Golan Heights in recent days. The Israeli regime has also been providing weapons to anti-Damascus militants as well as medical treatment to Takfiri elements wounded in Syria.

A bus transports militants as part of an evacuation of the city of Dara'a in Syria, July 15, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

Since June 19, the Syrian army has been conducting the liberation operation in Dara'a, which borders Jordan and the Israeli-occupied side of Syria’s Golan Heights.

In a bid to minimize civilian casualties, both Damascus and Moscow have been initiating talks with militants to make them hand back the areas they control to the government without fighting.

Dara'a was the birthplace of sedition that was born in March 2011 before morphing into a foreign-backed militancy that continues to this day.