’ISIS’, Nusra Ousted from Damascus Suburbs, 500 Families Return Home

Local Editor

Some 500 families are set to return to the devastated southern suburbs of Damascus, after "ISIS" and al-Nusra militants were allowed to withdraw from the area unharmed, as part of a "national reconciliation" deal with the Syrian government.

Under the three stage withdrawal plan of the "reconciliation", more than 1,000 militants on Wednesday were provided with a passage to "ISIS" stronghold of Raqqa, northern Syria. Besides, the al-Nusra militants are making their way to Idlib, also north of the country.

Overall, some 4,000 people were placed on the buses to head north. As part of the safety corridor agreement reached under the auspices of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross at the end of December, insurgents had to surrender their arms.

Besides leaving the southern suburbs of Damascus, "ISIS" and al-Nusra militants, mostly of foreign nationalities, also moved out of the Palestinian Yarmouk refugee camp, which had been under their control since April 2015.

Meanwhile, around 1,300 fighters of Syrian nationality chose to cut ties with the radicals and surrender. In the al-Qadam area alone, some 150 people had their legal status settled, according to Syrian state news agency SANA.

Relatively, clearing the terrorist threat in the Damascus suburbs made it possible for the first batch of some 500 families to ready themselves to return to their homes in an area that looks nothing as it once did before the Syrian conflict erupted.

Consequently, heavy fighting left hardly nothing but rubble and dusty empty streets. All of the buildings were either damaged or destroyed and barely any functioning infrastructure was left standing.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team