Among the evacuees are rebels and their families, who were in control of Yalda, Babbila and Beit Sahem - towns that have been reclaimed by Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
Light of the Alawites...
's forces.
The evacuations came in stages after government forces launched a fierce push to retake the area from rebel groups 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...and Hay'et Tahrir al-Sham
last month.Since April 19, government forces backed by Russian fighter jets have also been attempting to push out ISIS fighters from the Paleostinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, which has been under siege since 2012.
The towns and the camp lie a few kilometres from central Damascus, where Assad's government resides.
Though evacuations started a few days following the south Damascus offensive, more have been taking place over the past weeks, with rebels groups surrendering pockets across the area.
Under the deal, the opposition agreed to surrender medium to heavy military hardware in exchange for safe passage.