Convoy of evacuated Syria rebels crosses into Lebanon: AFP
A convoy of more than 120 rebels and wounded from the flashpoint Syrian border town of Zabadani crossed into Lebanon on Monday as part of a UN-backed truce, an AFP journalist said.
The convoy included seven buses and 22 ambulances and was accompanied by Lebanese security forces from the Masnaa border crossing, the journalist at the scene said.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, the evacuees will travel from the Beirut airport to Turkey, and will then cross into rebel-held territory in Syria.
Syrians wait for the arrival of a convey carrying their relatives near the Masnaa crossing on the Lebanon-Syria border on December 28, 2015, following a rare UN-backed deal ©Hasan Jarrah (AFP)
The operation was to be matched by a similar evacuation from Fuaa and Kafraya, the last two regime-held villages in Syria's northwest Idlib province.
At least 335 people, including civilians, were set to travel on Monday from Fuaa and Kafraya into Turkey, then fly into Lebanon and cross overland to Damascus, the Observatory said.
Syria's regime has agreed to several ceasefires with rebel groups in the past but Monday's evacuation plan was one of the most elaborate in the nearly five-year war.
It was the first to involve crossing through Turkey and Lebanon.
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