Evacuation from Daraya
Evacuation from DarayaReuters

Rebels and civilians, many in tears, on Friday began evacuating the Syrian town of Daraya after a four-year army siege, in a blow for the beleaguered opposition.

The evacuation came after a deal struck by President Bashar Al-Assad's government and opposition forces in the town, which is near Damascus and was one of the first to rise up against the regime.

The fighters and their families left the devastated town aboard buses escorted by ambulances and Red Crescent vehicles, an AFP reporter said.

The first bus to emerge from Daraya carried mostly children, elderly people and women.

Government troops waved their weapons in celebration when buses carrying rebels left the town, and taunted the fighters by chanting pro-regime slogans.

Inside Daraya, which has been surrounded by loyalist forces since 2012 and suffered constant bombardment, tearful residents said final goodbyes, a local rebel told AFP.

State news agency SANA, which announced the deal on Thursday, said 700 rebels and their families would go to rebel-controlled Idlib and thousands of civilians would be taken to government reception centers.

The evacuation is expected to last until Sunday, and a military source said the army would then enter Daraya.

A rebel official told AFP the civilians would go to regions under regime control around the capital and rebels will go to Idlib "or sort out their situation with the regime".

A military source said 300 rebels and their families would be evacuated during Friday.

Daraya is just 15 minutes’ drive from Damascus and even closer to the government's key Mazzeh air base.

The town was seen as a symbolic bastion of the March 2011 uprising that began with peaceful protests against Assad's government, before degenerating into a war that has killed more than 290,000 people.

Rebels accused the government of killing some 500 people in a military operation in Daraya in August 2012.

One rebel told AFP the decision to evacuate had been taken because of deteriorating humanitarian conditions.

"The town is no longer inhabitable, it has been completely destroyed," he said.

In four years, just one food aid convoy entered Daraya, in June, shortly after a convoy carrying medicine.

The arrival of the food was followed by heavy regime bombardment that residents said stalled distribution.

According to the UN, nearly 600,000 live under siege across Syria, most surrounded by government forces, although rebels and jihadists also use the tactic.

AFP contributed to this report.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)