HARASTA: Syrian rebels and their families began leaving Syria’s Eastern Ghouta on Thursday under the first evacuation deal in the shrinking opposition enclave outside Damascus.

In the northwestern province of Idlib, meanwhile, an air raid on a market killed 22 civilians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The agreement, announced on Wednesday and brokered by regime ally Russia, could empty one of three rebel-held pockets in the region and mark a major advance in government efforts to secure the nearby capital.

It could also increase pressure on rebels to follow suit in the two other opposition-held pockets of the besieged enclave, where tens of thousands of civilians remain trapped under relentless bombardment.

State television said 410 fighters were among hundreds of people who had boarded buses from the Eastern Ghouta town of Harasta, until now held by the Ahrar al-Sham rebel group.

A military source said the rebels and accompanying civilians had boarded buses and were in a buffer zone, waiting to cross into regime-controlled territory.

As night fell, a correspondent saw fighters performing the evening prayer by the buses.

Women and children walked nearby or sat by the side of the road waiting for the green light for the convoy to set off.

Another military source said around 2,000 people are expected to leave in total, including around 700 fighters on Thursday.

Ahrar al-Sham spokesman Munzer Fares said the evacuations could last several days. They followed renewed air strikes in Ghouta early on Thursday which killed 20 civilians, according to the Britain-based Observatory.

Since Feb 18, a devastating Russian-backed offensive on Eastern Ghouta has sliced the shrinking enclave into three isolated pockets.

Central Damascus lies within mortar range of Eastern Ghouta, and the evacuation deal came after the deadliest rebel rocket attack on the capital in months killed 44 civilians on Tuesday.

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2018