Damascus Welcomes Evacuees in Rare U.N. Deal
Hundreds of Syrians arrived in Damascus on Tuesday after travelling from besieged Idlib through Turkey and Lebanon and back into Syria as part of an intricate U.N.-backed deal to evacuate civilians and rebels from hotspot areas, AFP reports.
Nearly 300 people from the government-controlled towns of Fuaa and Kafraya arrived to the Sayyida Zeinab area just south of the capital, where an official celebration was expected to take place later in the day.
The 338 people evacuated from Idlib were part of a deal that removed 450 civilians and fighters from flashpoint areas in Syria. The evacuation is part of a six-month truce established in September.
Residents from Fuaa and Kafraya, both villages under rebel siege, were bussed to Turkey, where they flew to Lebanon and then were bussed back into Syria.
Another 126 people from Zabadani, the last rebel-held town along the Syrian-Lebanese border, were evacuated to Beirut where they were flown to Turkey. From Turkey, they were to cross back into rebel-held areas in northern Syria.
Double Attack in Homs Kills More Than 19
A car bombing followed by a suicide attack killed more than 19 people in Homs on Monday, UPI reports.
A car packed with 440 pounds of explosives detonated along a busy road in the city’s al-Zahra neighborhood, an Alawite area known to be pro-Assad. Shortly after the explosion, a man standing amid a crowd that had gathered at the scene detonated a suicide vest.
According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the death toll reached 32 people with an additional 90 injured.
Earlier this month, the Syrian government retook the last rebel held area of Syria’s third largest city, and a tentative ceasefire has been in place ever since. Monday’s attack was the second in Homs since the December deal.
Erdogan Arrives to Saudi to Talk Syria
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday of “mercilessly” killing hundreds of thousands of his own people and criticized Russia for supporting him.
Erdogan’s comments came just hours before arriving in Saudi Arabia for talks with King Salman on Syria’s civil war. Riyadh and Ankara are both staunch backers of the Syrian opposition and the removal of Assad.
The Turkish and Saudi leaders are working “in solidarity and consultation” to find a political solution in Syria that does not involve Assad, Erdogan told reporters.
When it came to Russia, one of Assad’s strongest backers, Erdogan said: “You cannot go anywhere by supporting a regime that has mercilessly killed 400,000 innocent people with conventional and chemical weapons.”
Russia militarily intervened in Syria on behalf of Assad on September 30, with the stated goal of helping the Syrian government defeat Islamic State militants and other extremists. But a large portion of Moscow’s raids has targeted Western-backed rebel factions and activists have accused Russia of killing scores of civilians.
Recommended Reads
- Reuters: Seized Documents Reveal Islamic State’s Department of ‘War Spoils’
- CPJ: The Militarization of the Press in Syria
- Al-Monitor: Jordan’s Syria Blacklist Blasted by Key Players
- The New York Times: Evacuations Aim to Ease Path to Talks in Syria War
- The Wall Street Journal: Turkey’s Dangerous Game in Syria
Top image: Families of wounded Syrian opposition fighters wait for their release in Masnaa, Lebanon, Monday, December 28, 2015. Some on wheelchairs, stretchers or using crutches, the fighters gathered Monday in a square in the Syrian mountain resort of Zabadani and boarded buses and ambulances that began taking them to Lebanon from where they will be flown to Turkey. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)