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ISIS affiliate evacuates elements from Syria's Yarmouk basin

By Waleed Abu al-Khair in Cairo

This bus transported 'Islamic State of Iraq and Syria' elements from the Yarmouk basin to the Syrian Badiya region after reaching an agreement with the Syrian regime. [Photo courtesy of JUmaa al-Masalma]

This bus transported 'Islamic State of Iraq and Syria' elements from the Yarmouk basin to the Syrian Badiya region after reaching an agreement with the Syrian regime. [Photo courtesy of JUmaa al-Masalma]

Syrian armed forces and allied militias have begun evacuating "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) elements from the Yarmouk basin area in southern Syria, an activist told Diyaruna Wednesday (August 1st).

Members of Jaish Khalid ibn al-Walid, an ISIS affiliate that was in control of the western part of Daraa province, agreed to surrender to the regime in exchange for their transport to the Badiya (desert) region near Sweida, activist Jumaa al-Masalma in rural ​​Daraa said.

"More than 300 ISIS elements and their families were transported to the Syrian Badiya region after striking an agreement with regime forces," he said.

They assembled at the Libyan Company headquarters building and the Jalin housing complex in Daraa province before the evacuation, he said.

Another group of ISIS elements without their families were detained in the town of Tafas prior to the commencement of the evacuation process, he added.

Some of the militants who are natives of villages and towns in the Yarmouk basin region and rural Daraa are negotiating with the regime "to settle their civil status and not have to leave to the Badiya region on the grounds that they were forced by [ISIS] to take up arms and fight in its ranks", al-Masalma said.

On Wednesday, Syrian forces clashed with ISIS militants in the village of al-Qusair, the group's last redoubt in the Yarmouk basin, state news agency SANA reported.

Over the past two days, Syrian army forces have captured al-Shajara town, the villages of Abdin, Maaraba, Kuwaya and Beit Aara, it said. They continued their assault on ISIS pockets in the area until reaching al-Qusair.

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