Khalil Musa – Darayya
Only seven kilometers is the distance from the heart of Daraya to central Damascus, some 15 minutes using the buses that drove the civilians from the city’s western region.
As for the militants, exiting them in such a way resembled a lithotripsy operation by a professional surgeon, despite its difficulty. The legendary endurance and the non-stopping follow-up were the main pillars of this achievement, and the people in charge of it was composed of the Syrian army and resistance groups surrounding the capital along several years.
In numbers: Permanent Transfer and Evacuation…
Meanwhile, what was referred to as settlement has started taking its path to the required position. Daraya, since the very first minutes of activating the settlement, was labeled as safe. This came in parallel with waiting to evacuate the last militant. The Syrian flag has been gradually raised on the town’s buildings.
There have been some main important details, atop of which was the return of the governmental institutions after being absented for some four years. The militants were transferred to Idlib. The civilians were temporarily transferred to the sheltering centers before their residential areas become renovated.
The process came into effect Friday afternoon. Nine buses were evacuated, six of which carried civilians to the sheltering centers. The other three carried the militants. The same operation took place on Saturday, in which nine buses of civilians and five others full of militants were evacuated. The total of the two-day operation was some 1000 civilians and 500 militants with their individual weapons; only their Kalashnikov rifles.
The operation was set to continue in the following days in which everyone inside Daraya should have been evacuated. Their sum is 4000 civilians and 700 militants. The operation, according to the plan, should have lasted four days.
The Mechanism, according to Field Commander
During the evacuation, and according to what al-Manar website has documented when being in Daraya amid the operation that included new national conciliation, a field commander told us that light, medium and heavy weapons were handed over by the militants. He further added that nobody is allowed to take other than his individual weapon. In the meantime, army soldiers started arriving to take over. Syrian Arab Red Crescent ambulances were accompanying, as well as United Nations observers’ vehicles in which the militants were transferred.
According to the field commander, the delay in liberating the town was due to the presence of civilians that hindered the military operation against the militants in the same area. This complicated the military operation previously. He went further to consider that the pressure exerted on the militants by the Syrian army obliged them to give up to Syria’s might and will, represented by both the army and government.
In an exclusive interview with Damascus countryside Governor, Eng. Alaa Munir Ibrahim, he stressed that some centers have been prepared in Damascus countryside to shelter civilians, where they were accompanied to the town of al-Horjelah before being distributed among the centers.
According to Ibrahim and al-Manar website examination, the centers are equipped with all main vital requirements, and all what a citizen would need such as food prepared in high-quality kitchens, electricity and medical services, as well as other basics for a dignified life.
He also confirmed that Daraya will be rehabilitated as soon as the steps of the settlement are finished. The government institutions will be reactivated, the infrastructure rebuilt and houses renovated. Later, civilians would be returned to their homes, which were destroyed as a result of terrorism’s positioning there along four years.
Roads to Aleppo are Open
According to our sources, buses carrying the militants move directly from Daraya to Damascus-Homs international highway. The trip continues through Hama to stop in Idlib where the buses return and others start their trip, until the operation of transferring militants is over.
Upon the agreement, some families of the militants preferred accompanying their relatives to Idlib, the main bastion of terrorism north Syria. However, those families were very few in which they don’t form a big humanitarian bloc. Hence, the danger of those who offer an environment for terrorism to grow has been eliminated as they chose to go there unlike thousands who reject the militants’ presence inside Daraya.
To read the original article in Arabic click here.
Translated by website team
Source: Al-Manar Website
