300 Syrians leave rebel town under Daraya deal

More than 300 Syrians living in the opposition-held Moadimayet al-Sham district after fleeing fighting in rebel-held Daraya were evacuated on Friday under a deal with the government, state media reported.

The agreement between the regime and the rebels has already seen thousands of civilians and rebel fighters leave Daraya itself after a four-year government siege of the town near Damascus.

The civilians evacuated on Friday were mostly women and children, and have been in Moadimayet al-Sham for around three years, after fleeing clashes in Daraya.

Moadimayet al-Sham is also under government siege, but after a truce deal signed in late 2013 has been spared the heavy fighting that has ravaged other rebel-held areas around the capital.

The evacuees walked to the edge of Moadimayet al-Sham, where eight buses were waiting to take them to reception centres elsewhere in Damascus province, an Agence France Presse photographer reported.

Soldiers searched their suitcases as they left, and checked their names against a list.

State media said 303 residents of Daraya were leaving Moadimayet al-Sham and would be taken to Hrajeleh, a regime-held district, for processing.

State television said they consisted of 162 children, 79 women and 62 men.

"I've been taking refuge here for three years and I hope that life in the reception centre will be better than here," said Roueida, a mother of seven, as she left.

The evacuation follows the implementation of the deal in Daraya itself, which saw the town emptied of rebels and civilians and retaken by government forces.

Opposition fighters said they were forced to accept the deal, under which rebels and their families were given safe passage to the rebel-held northwestern city of Idlib, because the blockade and constant bombardment by the army had made the humanitarian situation untenable.

UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura voiced concern that the Daraya deal was part of a wider strategy by the regime to empty rebel enclaves that would soon be extended to other areas.

He said there there were "indications that after Daraya we may have other Darayas."

"There is clearly a strategy at the moment to move from Daraya" to other besieged areas "in a similar pattern", he told reporters in Geneva on Thursday.

The opposition High Negotiations Committee charged that "local truce" agreements like the one agreed in Daraya were leading to "ethnic and political cleansing".

Food aid reached Daraya just once during the four-year siege imposed by government forces, and residents said they subjected to heavy bombardment directly after the aid was delivered.

More than 290,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began with anti-government protests in March 2011.