Two out of three rebel groups that had been controlling the enclave have already surrendered, with thousands of fighters and their relatives departing for opposition-held areas in the north of the country.
The third rebel group, Jaish al-Islam
...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful..., which controls the city of Douma, has so far refused to give in.
However,
some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go...
it is understood that Jaish al-Islam is also close to reaching an evacuation deal following negotiations with the Russian army, an ally of Syrian forces.
Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, Leb, said on Saturday that talks between Jaish al-Islam and the Russian military had earlier collapsed due to the group's refusal to be evacuated to Idlib, a northwestern province still largely under rebel control.
"Jaish al-Islam does not have good relations with the rebel groups which dominate Idlib province," said Khodr.
"What we understand is that they may be sent to an eastern region ... close to Leb's border," she added.