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REUTERS
BEIRUT
MORE than 100 buses arrived on Wednesday to evacuate thousands of people from two loyalist Syrian villages that are besieged by rebels in the northwest, under a deal in which the government is expected to release hundreds of detainees.
The Shiite villages of al-Foua and Kefraya will be emptied of all their residents and fighters, a commander in the regional alliance that backs President Bashar al-Assad said.
They have been under siege for years by Sunni Islamist rebels in Idlib province in the last major insurgent-held part of Syria. Assad, who is advancing against rebels in the southwest, has vowed to recover the entire country.
Some 7,000 people will leave both villages, said al-Manar TV, run by Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah movement.
Population transfers have been a common feature of the seven-year Syrian war, which has killed an estimated half a million people and driven some 11 million from their homes, mostly at the expense of Assad's opponents.
Rebels and civilians have been bussed out of their hometowns to insurgent territory in the north, as government forces advanced with critical help from Russia and Iran.
State TV said 121 buses had entered al-Foua and Kefraya in Idlib province so far on Wednesday, along with Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) ambulances for sick residents. The evacuees will include Alawite hostages that rebel factions took when they overran Idlib more than three years ago, it said.
