Syrian regime, Daesh agree on evacuations from Yarmouk

By Mohamad Misto and Selen Temizer

YARMOUK/ANKARA

A civilian convoy left the Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus on Monday after a deal was struck to this effect between Syria’s Assad regime and the Daesh terrorist group.

Nine buses carrying civilians set out from Yarmouk to Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, local sources told Anadolu Agency on Monday.

According to the same sources, the evacuation process is set to continue.

Under the terms of the deal, seven busloads of Daesh terrorists will be allowed to leave the camp for Badiya, a Daesh-held region of Homs province, the sources said.

Located eight kilometers south of Damascus and inhabited mostly by Palestinian refugees, the Yarmouk camp sits on 16 square kilometers of land.

For the past five years, the camp has remained under siege by the Assad regime and Iran-backed militia groups. In Daesh-held parts of the camp, some 2,500 families -- most of them Palestinians -- have struggled to survive.

In a separate deal inked on Apr. 29, the Syrian regime and Tahrir al-Sham, an armed opposition group, agreed to evacuate parts of the Yarmouk camp controlled by the latter.