Evacuation of militants on hold after rebel leader death

  • 27/12/2015
Zahran Alloush, commander of Jaysh al Islam, talks during a conference in Damascus, Syria (Reuters)
Zahran Alloush, commander of Jaysh al Islam, talks during a conference in Damascus, Syria (Reuters)

The evacuation of thousands of rebels at the Yarmouk refugee camp in southern Damascus has been put on hold due to the killing of an insurgent leader.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the evacuation from Damascus was expected to take place early on Saturday (local time). But it was delayed, as there was no secure territory for the militants to pass through after the death of Jaysh al Islam rebel group's leader Zahran Alloush.

Militants and their families were due to be bussed to the Islamic State (IS) capital in northern Syria, Raqqa, under the first deal of its kind between IS rebels and the Syrian government, BBC reports.

It would have been a significant gain for the government of President Bashar al-Assad as it would increase the chances of control in a strategic area south of the centre of the capital, Reuters reports.

Meanwhile, a rebel coalition claims to have captured control of a strategic dam from IS in northern Syria.

A Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces spokesperson said fighters backed by air strikes seized the Tishrin dam, situated 22km north of Raqqa, according to the BBC.

The capture of the dam is seen to help disrupt IS supplies isolate the group between northern Aleppo and its territory east of the river.

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