Families returning home as ISIS & Nusra jihadists withdraw from Damascus

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

As part of the three stage withdrawal plan of the “reconciliation” more than 1,000 jihadists on Wednesday were provided with a safe passage to the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) stronghold of Raqqa in northern Syria. Al-Nusra fighters are making their way to Idlib, also in the north of the country, RR Arabic reports.

Overall some 4,000 people, including the family members of extremist fighting units, 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 the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) at the end of December, fighters had to surrender their arms.

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