Residents of Syrian Shia Towns Out of Terrorist Siege
BEIRUT (Dispatches) -- Thousands of people will be evacuated from two besieged Shia towns in Syria in exchange for the release of prisoners held in government jails, an activist group said Tuesday.
Under a deal brokered by regime ally Russia and Turkey, Al-Foua and Kfarya, the last besieged towns in the country, will be fully evacuated after three years of encirclement by rebels, said so-called the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Syrian state media reported Tuesday on preliminary information on a deal to free "thousands" of people in Al-Foua and Kfarya.
Al-Foua and Kfarya, the only two places in Syria currently designated as besieged by the United Nations, are home to an estimated 8,100 people, most of them Shia Muslims.
They came under siege in 2015 when Takfiri terrorists and allied militants overran the surrounding province of Idlib in Syria's northwest.
The evacuation deal is not the first that has been reached for the area.
In 2017, thousands were bussed out of Al-Foua and Kfarya in exchange for parallel evacuations from two towns near Damascus that were being besieged by the government.
But a blast targeting a convoy of evacuees from Al-Foua and Kfarya left 150 people dead, most of them civilians and including 72 children.
Meanwhile, Russia's Defense Ministry said it was ready to boost cooperation with the U.S. military in Syria, following talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The ministry said in a statement Tuesday that it's ready for "practical implementation" of agreements reached by Trump and Putin.
It said Russia's military leadership is ready to augment contacts with U.S. counterparts on "cooperation in Syria" and extending the START arms control treaty, but gave no details.
Putin said Russia and the U.S. reached common ground on Syria at Monday's talks but gave few details.
The U.S. and Russia have backed opposite sides of Syria's war, but U.S. and Russian officials are reportedly working toward an eventual deal on the balance of regional power in post-war Syria.
Under a deal brokered by regime ally Russia and Turkey, Al-Foua and Kfarya, the last besieged towns in the country, will be fully evacuated after three years of encirclement by rebels, said so-called the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Syrian state media reported Tuesday on preliminary information on a deal to free "thousands" of people in Al-Foua and Kfarya.
Al-Foua and Kfarya, the only two places in Syria currently designated as besieged by the United Nations, are home to an estimated 8,100 people, most of them Shia Muslims.
They came under siege in 2015 when Takfiri terrorists and allied militants overran the surrounding province of Idlib in Syria's northwest.
The evacuation deal is not the first that has been reached for the area.
In 2017, thousands were bussed out of Al-Foua and Kfarya in exchange for parallel evacuations from two towns near Damascus that were being besieged by the government.
But a blast targeting a convoy of evacuees from Al-Foua and Kfarya left 150 people dead, most of them civilians and including 72 children.
Meanwhile, Russia's Defense Ministry said it was ready to boost cooperation with the U.S. military in Syria, following talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The ministry said in a statement Tuesday that it's ready for "practical implementation" of agreements reached by Trump and Putin.
It said Russia's military leadership is ready to augment contacts with U.S. counterparts on "cooperation in Syria" and extending the START arms control treaty, but gave no details.
Putin said Russia and the U.S. reached common ground on Syria at Monday's talks but gave few details.
The U.S. and Russia have backed opposite sides of Syria's war, but U.S. and Russian officials are reportedly working toward an eventual deal on the balance of regional power in post-war Syria.