Alwaght- Almost 5,500 militants of the Faylaq ar-Rahman group and their family members left Syria’s Eastern Ghouta on Sunday and were taken to the Idlib province, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
The evacuation from the settlement of Arbil in Eastern Ghouta, a Damascus suburb, was carried out under the agreement between the group’s leaders and the Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Warring Parties in Syria.
"Some 5,453 militants and their family members were evacuated via a humanitarian corridor on March 25 in 81 buses to the Idlib province," the ministry said in a statement.
Over the past two days, 6,441 militants and their family members have been evacuated from Arbil to the Idlib province, the ministry said. Officers of the Russian reconciliation center and also representatives of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent ensured their security during the entire route.
Some 4,979 militants and their family members were evacuated from the Syrian capital’s northeastern suburb of Harasta to the Idlib province on Sunday.
Over the past few weeks, Syria and Russia have cornered foreign-backed militants in Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus, as part of their campaign to liberate civilians holed up there and end terrorist and militant attacks from the suburb on the capital.
Eastern Ghouta fell to terrorists and militants in 2012, months after Syria plunged into crisis, and has since served as a terrorist's' launch pad for fatal mortar attacks against residents and infrastructure in the capital.
Syrian forces are engaged in intensive operations to wipe out remnants of terrorists in many parts of the country after a successful offensive to retake all territories previously occupied by ISIS terrorist group in the country. Syria has been gripped by a foreign-backed insurgency since 2011 which has led to the killing of hundreds of thousands of civilians and displacing of millions.
