Terrorists agree to leave Yarmouk Camp in deal with Syrian government

Takfiri militants have agreed to evacuate the Yarmouk refugee camp in southern Damascus along with their families as part of a deal with the Damascus government.

Under the deal, militants with the so-called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and their families, who have been holed up in the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, would be given safe passage to the militant-held northwestern province of Idlib, Syria’s official news agency SANA reported on Monday.

Some 5,000 people besieged in the towns of Kefraya and al-Foua’a as well as those who have been abducted from the village of Eshtabraq will then be released in two stages.

According to SANA, five buses transported 200 terrorists and their family members from the Yarmouk camp to Idlib on Monday.

Meanwhile, Daesh Takfiri terrorist have been blocking civilian evacuations from Yarmouk by launching mortar attacks on the route out of the area.

At least 22 people were injured as the Daesh terrorists fired mortars shells at al-Batykha roundabout on the vicinity of the al-Hajar al-Aswad district near Yarmouk Camp.

The evacuation deal comes nearly two weeks into the government’s campaign to oust the Takfiri terrorists from the capital’s southern suburbs after liberating the Damascus’ Eastern Ghouta suburb.

Yarmouk was home to some 160,000 Palestinians before the Syrian conflict began in 2011. It was stormed by Daesh terrorists in 2015. According to the UN, some 3,500 Palestinian refugees are believed to have fled the embattled camp since the Syrian government launched a renewed offensive on April 19.

On Sunday, the Syrian state media said that the al-Qadm neighborhood next to the camp was retaken. Militant sources, cited by Reuters, said that the army was engaged in fighting with terrorists on the outskirts of Yarmouk camp, where up to 2,000 militants are encircled.

A deal has also been reached to evacuate militants from the areas of Yalda, Babila and Beit Sahem, also in southern Damascus, according to SANA. Under the deal, militants could choose between leaving the area with their families or handing over their weapons and staying.

The operation is a part of a larger effort to clear Damascus suburbs of militants by allowing them and their families to leave for other militant-held areas.

Two weeks ago, a similar agreement was reached for the militants to evacuate the eastern Qalamoun region, some 50 kilometers northeast of the Syrian capital. As a part of the deal, terrorists left behind heavy and medium weapons.