Several thousand residents evacuated two pro-regime towns in northern Syria on Thursday (July 19th), putting an end to one of the longest sieges of the country's seven-year civil war, AFP reported.

Fuaa and Kafraya in Idlib province were the last remaining areas under blockade in Syria and a rare example of pro-government towns surrounded by opposition forces.

The towns were besieged for three years by opposition fighters and extremist alliance Tahrir al-Sham.

A deal was reached Tuesday between regime ally Russia and opposition backer Turkey to see the residents taken to government-held territory in exchange for the release of prisoners from regime jails.

On Wednesday morning, barricades on the road leading into the towns were removed to let dozens of buses in.

Just after midnight, the buses drove out of Fuaa and Kafraya and Thursday morning were at the village of al-Eis, crossing from opposition-controlled territory into regime-held areas in Aleppo province.

Armed Tahrir al-Sham alliance fighters stood on the roadside as the convoy of evacuees inched past, with pro-government militiamen and regular civilians sitting solemnly on board and staring ahead.

Some 6,900 civilians and fighters were evacuated and the two towns were now "entirely empty of residents", the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Thursday morning.

"As the buses entered regime-held areas, the regime started releasing detainees, as per the deal," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.

According to Tahrir al-Sham sources, the evacuation had been agreed in exchange for the release of 1,500 people from government-run jails.