An image from video provided by the government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media shows families gathering to board buses to leave Madaya, an opposition-held town near Damascus, on Friday. (Syrian Central Military Media via AP)

Syrian government and rebel forces evacuated thousands of people Friday from a cluster of besieged towns, beginning one of the most sensitive population swaps of the country’s six-year war.

President Bashar al-Assad’s government has used siege warfare tactics to subdue restive towns throughout the conflict, cutting rebel supply lines and civilian access to food until the rebels agree to surrender.

Opposition officials have accused the government of using the blockades to force demographic change along sectarian lines.

The departures Friday marked the first stage in an evacuation that will see some 30,000 Syrians switch between rebel- and government-held areas, as part of a complex deal brokered by Qatar and Iran. In Syria’s south, the opposition-held towns of Madaya and Zabadani had been surrounded by government and Lebanese Hezbollah forces. In the north, Fouaa and Kefraya, the only towns besieged by rebel forces, had been blockaded by Islamist militants.

Forced to endure the tightest blockade of Syria’s war, Madaya’s residents had lived off aid packages when help arrived and had starved when it did not.





[Assad calls chemical attack a ‘fabrication’]

In January 2015, they started dying for lack of food. Images of skeletal children were published around the world as a reminder of the human cost of one of the most destructive wars of the 21st century.

On Friday morning, Madaya’s residents said they had boarded the evacuation buses in tears.

“We are leaving our homeland, our childhoods and our friends. There is a lot of sadness here,” said Muhammed Darwish, a dentistry student who had become the town’s closest approximation of a doctor. Without formal training, and as casualties from pro-government snipers increased, he learned amputation on the job, often without painkillers or anesthetics.

But after years of grinding siege, no one interviewed by The Washington Post believed that holding out was an option.

The governor of Damascus, Alaa Ibrahim, said the government would restore control over Madaya and Zabadani once it was satisfied that no armed men remained.

“My home was the most beautiful place in Syria, but we leave so no one else has to die here,” said one man, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect relatives who would now fall under government control.

[Why Assad used sarin nerve agent in a war he’s winning]

Now in charge of all of Syria’s major urban centers, Damascus holds the upper hand against rebels in the west of the country and has negotiated a slew of other surrender deals from a position of strength.

While talks often begin with extensive demands from the rebel side, these have been whittled down by repeated government airstrikes, as well as pressure from civilians who blame the rebels in part for prolonging their suffering.

Darwish said Friday that at least 2,000 rebels, activists and medical workers would be leaving Madaya, believing it unsafe to stay. Tens of thousands of Syrians have made similar calculations in recent months, boarding the government’s green buses for the rebels’ largest remaining stronghold, Idlib province.

As that area’s population has increased, so has the rate of international attacks on al-Qaeda-linked fighters who have come to dominate the rebellion there. Syrian and Russian warplanes have been joined in the skies by a U.S.-led coalition, which is also targeting al-Qaeda in Idlib.

[U.S. strikes Syrian air base in first attack on Assad government]

A week after President Trump launched America’s first direct military action against Assad’s government, activists and monitoring groups said Friday that government-allied forces have stepped up bombardment of Idlib and other opposition areas across the country.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights said Syrian warplanes have killed 42 civilians, while attacks by Russian forces have taken the lives of 56 others.

Launched in retaliation for a chemical attack that killed scores of civilians last week, the U.S. Navy’s missile salvo on an air base in the western province of Homs has provoked outrage in Damascus.

The U.S. strike has also caused Assad’s biggest backers, Russia and Iran, to leap to his defense. Days after a testy meeting with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned Washington against launching further strikes, saying they would have “grave consequences” for global security.

Zakaria Zakaria in Istanbul contributed to this report.

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