DAMASCUS, April 3 (Xinhua) -- A total of 1,198 militants with the Islam Army rebel group and their families evacuated Douma in the capital Damascus' Eastern Ghouta on Tuesday toward a rebel-held city in northern Syria, state news agency SANA reported.
24 Buses transported the rebels and their families from Douma through the government-controlled Wafideen crossing northeast of Damascus, a day after over 1,130 Islam Army militants and their families left toward the rebel-held city of Jarablus in northern Syria near the Turkish border.
The evacuation of the rebels and their families from Douma comes as a deal was reached on Sunday between the Islam Army militants and the Syrian army under the mediation of Russia.
Douma is the last rebel-held area in Eastern Ghouta, after other towns in that sprawling countryside have seen the evacuation of all the rebels and their families toward Idlib province in northwestern Syria.
The Syrian army launched a massive operation last late in February on the rebels in Eastern Ghouta and secured the evacuation of 150,000 civilians who were hosted in government-run shelters until the situation settles in their areas in Eastern Ghouta for their return.
Eastern Ghouta, a 105-square-km agricultural region consisting of several towns and farmlands, poses the last threat to the capital due to its proximity to government-controlled neighborhoods east of Damascus and ongoing mortar attacks that target residential areas in the capital, pushing people over the edge.
