Destroyed buildings in Homs, Syria
Two thousand militants including fighters of Isis and Nusra Front to hand in their heavy weapons to Syrian army.

Two thousand Syrian Islamist fighters are expected to be evacuated soon from besieged, rebel-held areas of southern Damascus in a deal brokered by the UN, a Hezbollah TV station has said. The militants include fighters of Islamic State and the Nusra Front, al-Qaida’s offshoot in Syria.


Manar TV said on Friday that 18 buses had arrived to start taking them and 1,500 family members to areas under the control of Isis and other rebel groups. It was not clear whether the buses were provided by the UN or by the Syrian army. The TV station added that the militants would also be handing in their heavy weapons to the Syrian army under what it said was a multi-party deal under UN auspices.

The capitulation was forced by a government siege over several years that squeezed the flow of food and humanitarian aid. The Syrian authorities agreed to their evacuation in the hope of reasserting control of the strategic area, where fighters from other factions are also lodged, only 4km (2.5 miles) south of central Damascus.


It was the latest of several local ceasefires and safe-passage agreements between rival Syrian factions, as the United Nations, Syria’s neighbours and world powers step up efforts to end the civil war that has killed over a quarter of a million people in almost five years.

One such deal, brokered with support from Iran and Turkey, halted fighting in the town of Zabadani on the Lebanese border, and in two villages in the north-west. Another, in the last rebel-held district of the city of Homs, allowed rebels and their families to leave a besieged area. The UN said that agreement could help pave the way for a nationwide truce.

The UN security council on 18 December unanimously approved a resolution endorsing an international road map for a Syrian peace process, a rare show of consensus among major powers.

The Syrian foreign minister, Walid al-Muallem, said on Thursday that Damascus was ready to take part in peace talks in Geneva and hoped that the dialogue would help it form a national unity government.

The move came as it was announced that Russia and Qatar have agreed on steps to encourage the Syrian opposition to sit down for talks with the Syrian government, the Russian foreign minister said Friday.

Russia is a staunch supporter of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, who Qatar and other Middle East countries accuse of war crimes. Speaking to reporters after his talks with Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow, the Qatari foreign minister, Khalid bin Mohammad al-Attiyah, accused Assad of supporting terrorist groups.


Lavrov, meanwhile, insisted that “it’s up to the Syrian people” to decide Assad’s future. The Russian minister said the two countries still disagree on Assad’s future, but added that he and Attiyah had agreed to encourage the Syrian opposition to launch talks with the Syrian government. “We have reached an understanding with our Qatari counterparts about what we can do to help make sure such a delegation [of the Syrian opposition] is formed so the Syrian talks can be effective,” Lavrov said.