New deal revives Aleppo hopes

Beirut - 54 buses leave for govt-held villages for evacuation

Rebel and government forces agreed on Saturday to allow "humanitarian cases" to leave two besieged government-held Shia villages in northwestern Syria, a step that would allow the resumption of civilian and rebel evacuations from eastern Aleppo which were suspended a day earlier, Hezbollah's media arm and a monitoring group said.
The opposition's Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the evacuation of some 4,000 people, including wounded, from the villages of Foua and Kfarya was expected to start later on Saturday. It reported that 29 buses were heading towards the two villages to start the evacuation process, adding that insurgents in the area rejected allowing 4,000 people to leave and saying they will only allow 400 people to be evacuated.
The Syrian army said another 25 buses left later on Saturday heading to the two villages.
An amateur video posted online by opposition activists on Friday showed scores of men, women and children running away from a crossing point for fear of being shot at.
The Syrian government has said that the village evacuations and the one in eastern Aleppo must be done simultaneously, but the rebels say there's no connection. Hezbollah's Military Media said the new deal also includes the rebel-held towns of Madaya and Zabadani near the border with Lebanon where tens of thousands of people are trapped under siege by government forces and the Lebanese group.
In Moscow, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called his counterparts in Turkey and Iran to discuss the Syria crisis. The ministry's read-out said all three discussed the Aleppo evacuation and humanitarian efforts and stressed "the importance of continuing to coordinate efforts of the international community to provide humanitarian aid to those in need". They agreed to meet soon.

• MENA