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Militants pullout from south Damascus put on hold

Iran Press TV

Sat Dec 26, 2015 11:1AM

Despite a UN-brokered deal, the evacuation of some 2,000 militants out of the southern areas of the Syrian capital, Damascus, has been ceased, the Lebanese al-Manar television says.

On Saturday, buses stopped relocating Daesh and other militants fighting against the Syrian government from southern Damascus to other areas.

Daesh terrorists and other militant factions "stopped leaving the Hajar al-Aswad area," al-Manar said in a report.

This came about a day after Syria said that Zahran Alloush, the notorious terrorist leader of the so-called Jaysh al-Islam group, was killed in an operation by the Syrian Air Force.

A security source told AFP that the evacuation is now on hold because of Alloush's death.

'Jaysh al-Islam was supposed to provide safe passage through areas east of Damascus for the buses heading to Raqqa,' Daesh's bastion in Syria, the source said by phone.T

The evacuation was part of a ceasefire deal that came after two months of intense negotiations between Syria's government and militants.

On Friday, al-Manar reported that 18 buses, accompanied by UN vehicles and Syrian government security personnel, had arrived in southern Damascus to transfer militants to the northern cities of Raqqah and Marea.

The television added that 3,567 people, including 2,000 militants, were expected to leave the areas of Hajar al-Aswad, Qadam, Asail, and part of the Yarmuk camp areas.

The conflict in Syria has claimed the lives of more than 250,000 people and left over one million injured, according to the UN.

On December 18, the UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution endorsing an international roadmap for a Syrian peace process for the country which has been suffering from a foreign-backed militancy since March 2011.

The UN says 12.2 million people, including more than 5.6 million children, remain in need of humanitarian assistance in Syria. The foreign-sponsored militancy has also displaced 7.6 million people.