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AFP
Damascus
Syrian rebels began evacuating a second part of Syria's Eastern Ghouta on Saturday, state media said, in the latest such deal this week for the former opposition bastion.
"Several buses carrying 500 fighters and their families have reached the Arbin crossing, in preparation for their departure from Ghouta," state news agency SANA reported.
Once more buses gather at the Arbin crossing, the full convoy is expected to cross to opposition zones in northern Syria.
Since February 18, a Russian-backed air and ground assault by Syrian troops has brought most of the area under government control, and Damascus is using evacuation deals to clear the last three pockets.
Rebels completed a negotiated withdrawal from one Ghouta town on Friday and a similar deal was reached the same day for Faylaq al-Rahman rebel fighters to pull out of a second area.
Talks are ongoing for the third zone around Ghouta's largest town of Douma.
Under Friday's agreement, rebels and civilians in areas held by Faylaq al-Rahman are to be bussed to opposition-held territory in northwestern Syria.
The evacuations from the towns of Zamalka, Arbin and Ain Tarma had been scheduled to begin Saturday morning, but the buses designated for the operation did not enter until the afternoon.
A military source told AFP the delays were caused by"logistical issues," including the roads being sealed off by sandberms and mines and rebels' failure to prepare the list of evacuees in time.
At around 4 pm local time (1400 GMT), state television reported that buses began entering Arbin after the army had cleared the sandberms and explosives.
It also broadcast live footage of eight Syrian men, who said they had been detained by Faylaq al-Rahman for over a year and were released under the settlement.
Waiting at the edge of Ghouta, Sabah al-Salloum desperately hoped her son Munzer -- kidnapped four years ago by Ghouta rebels -- would be among them.
"I heard from the news the kidnapped would be released, and I'm losing my nerves waiting. I couldn't sleep," Salloum told AFP.
In Arbin, dozens of fighters, their relatives, and other residents had waited for hours in the bombed-out streets for the buses to arrive, an AFP correspondent reported.
It was the first time in weeks that so many people were seen outdoors. Relentless bombardment had made it too dangerous to venture out, even to find food.
The government has implemented a"leave or die" strategy to retake Ghouta, reducing swathes of it to rubble with air strikes and artillery fire but keeping open the offer of evacuation.
The onslaught has killed more than 1,600 civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
State media said on Saturday that more than 105,000 civilians had fled Ghouta in recent weeks. The army has opened three"corridors" for people to flee from newly-recaptured territory into government zones.
State television broadcast footage on Saturday of a sea of people -- dragging suitcases, carrying crying children -- trudging down one of the routes out of Ghouta.
