1,800 people evacuate rebel-held area near Damascus

Nearly 1,800 people, including 700 rebels, evacuated a town west of the capital Damascus on Wednesday, a security source told Xinhua

The rebels and their families left the town of Muadamiyeh in the countryside of Damascus toward the rebel-held northwestern city of Idlib, as part of a deal with the Syrian government, the source said on condition of anonymity.

The evacuation of the rebels and their families has become a growing trend recently, as last week more than 1,000 rebels and their families left the neighborhood of Qudsaya, west of Damascus.

The town of Daraya, near Muadamiyeh, also witnessed a similar evacuation a couple of months ago.

All those towns have been besieged by the government for years, and finally the rebels agreed to leave in order for the government to lift the siege.

The aim of the government tactic is to secure the vicinity of the capital with what it calls "deals" with the rebels who want to leave and "reconciliation" with others, who agree to abandon the rebellion and surrender to the Syrian army.

Most of the civilians who leave to Idlib are the families of the rebels, who refuse to lay down their weapons and reconcile with the government.

Opposition activists, such as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, accused the Syrian government of carrying out "demographic purging" in the aforementioned areas, something the government totally denied. Endit