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Syrian Media: 2 Pro-Government Villages Evacuated

by Associated Press

   BEIRUT --

   More than 7,000 people from two Syrian pro-government villages in the
   country's northwest that were besieged by the rebels for three years
   have been evacuated, Syria's state-run media reported Thursday.

   The emptying-out of villages of Foua and Kfarya under a deal negotiated
   between government forces and the rebels over the past few months marks
   one of the largest population transfers in Syria's civil war.

   Negotiating chip
   In exchange, the Syrian government is expected to release a number of
   detained insurgents.
   Al-Ikhbariya TV said all buses carrying residents of Foua and Kfarya
   had left the northern countryside of Idlib and that there were no more
   civilians there.

   The evacuation of the villages was used as a negotiating chip in
   earlier population transfers along conflict lines. The United Nations
   was not part of the negotiations and has criticized such transfers as
   forced displacement.

   An agreement to evacuate Foua and Kfarya last year was halted after a
   car bombing killed more than 100 people at a parking lot for buses
   meant to bring the evacuees out.

   Evacuation deals
   Shortly after leaving, more than 19 buses carrying the villagers
   Thursday arrived at the al-Eiss crossing in the countryside of Aleppo,
   while more than 51 buses arrived at a makeshift center for displaced
   people in Jibreen, Al-Ikhbariya said.
   The buses had traveled through rebel-held territory to arrive there.
   Evacuation deals and population transfers have been a fixture in the
   seven-year Syrian conflict and has seen tens of thousands of rebels and
   civilians transported from rebel-held areas to the northern province of
   Idlib and surrounding opposition-held territory amid advances by
   President Bashar Assad's forces.