Damascus Evacuation

A first batch of ISIS fighters left their final stronghold in the south of Syria's Damascus early Sunday under a deal struck after weeks of fierce combat, a monitor said.

More than 2,000 rebels and their family members have left the devastated district of Qaboun on the edge of the Syrian capital Damascus after more than two months of aerial strikes and artillery shelling, state media said on Sunday.

Responsibility for atrocities committed in Aleppo lies with Syria and its Russian and Iranian backers, US President Barack Obama said Friday as Damascus suspended the evacuation of civilians and fighters from the city's last rebel-held areas.

Besieged residents and rebels began leaving the Damascus suburb of Daraya today, Reuters witnesses said, as an evacuation to end one of the longest stand-offs in Syria's five-year war began.

A UN-brokered deal to evacuate more than 2,000 Islamic State fighters and other militants from rebel-held suburbs of Damascus on Saturday has been delayed after the killing of an insurgent leader, an organisation that monitors the Syrian war said.

Islamic State insurgents stormed the historic Syrian city of Palmyra on Wednesday, fighting off pro-government forces who withdrew after evacuating most of the civilian population, state television said.

Around 2,000 people have been evacuated from the Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus after the Islamic State group seized large parts of it, a Palestinian official told AFP Sunday.

Almost 600 Turkish troops pushed deep into Syria in an unprecedented incursion on Sunday, relocating a historic tomb and evacuating the soldiers guarding the monument after it was surrounded by Islamic State (IS) jihadists.

Some 2,000 rebels and civilians were to begin leaving besieged opposition-held districts of Homs city in central Syria on Wednesday under a deal between fighters and the government.

Syria began evacuating civilians from a besieged area of Homs on Friday while Russia announced that Syria's warring parties had agreed a three-day ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid in to those who remain.

Aid agencies in Syria have evacuated hundreds of people from the rebel-held Damascus suburb of Yarmouk, a government-aligned Palestinian group said on Saturday

A Russian cargo plane carrying food aid for Syria landed in the Mediterranean city of Latakia today and would evacuate Russians wanting to leave the conflict-torn country, the emergencies ministry said.

Key Syrian ally Russia began evacuating its citizens from the country on Tuesday as the civil war gathered momentum in the capital Damascus with intense fighting around the international airport.

A first batch of ISIS fighters left their final stronghold in the south of Syria's Damascus early Sunday under a deal struck after weeks of fierce combat, a monitor said.

More than 2,000 rebels and their family members have left the devastated district of Qaboun on the edge of the Syrian capital Damascus after more than two months of aerial strikes and artillery shelling, state media said on Sunday.

Responsibility for atrocities committed in Aleppo lies with Syria and its Russian and Iranian backers, US President Barack Obama said Friday as Damascus suspended the evacuation of civilians and fighters from the city's last rebel-held areas.

Besieged residents and rebels began leaving the Damascus suburb of Daraya today, Reuters witnesses said, as an evacuation to end one of the longest stand-offs in Syria's five-year war began.

A UN-brokered deal to evacuate more than 2,000 Islamic State fighters and other militants from rebel-held suburbs of Damascus on Saturday has been delayed after the killing of an insurgent leader, an organisation that monitors the Syrian war said.

Islamic State insurgents stormed the historic Syrian city of Palmyra on Wednesday, fighting off pro-government forces who withdrew after evacuating most of the civilian population, state television said.

Around 2,000 people have been evacuated from the Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus after the Islamic State group seized large parts of it, a Palestinian official told AFP Sunday.

Almost 600 Turkish troops pushed deep into Syria in an unprecedented incursion on Sunday, relocating a historic tomb and evacuating the soldiers guarding the monument after it was surrounded by Islamic State (IS) jihadists.

Some 2,000 rebels and civilians were to begin leaving besieged opposition-held districts of Homs city in central Syria on Wednesday under a deal between fighters and the government.

Syria began evacuating civilians from a besieged area of Homs on Friday while Russia announced that Syria's warring parties had agreed a three-day ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid in to those who remain.

Aid agencies in Syria have evacuated hundreds of people from the rebel-held Damascus suburb of Yarmouk, a government-aligned Palestinian group said on Saturday

A Russian cargo plane carrying food aid for Syria landed in the Mediterranean city of Latakia today and would evacuate Russians wanting to leave the conflict-torn country, the emergencies ministry said.

Key Syrian ally Russia began evacuating its citizens from the country on Tuesday as the civil war gathered momentum in the capital Damascus with intense fighting around the international airport.