A first batch of "Islamic State" fighters has evacuated their stronghold in Damascus a day after an apparent deal with the Syrian regime. In recent years, jihadis have steadily lost ground to government forces.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/R. al Sayed
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The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sunday that a group of "Islamic State" (IS) jihadis evacuated an enclave in the south of the Syrian capital, Damascus, after weeks of fierce combat with the regime's forces.
"At dawn, six buses of IS fighters and their relatives left the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp and adjacent district of al-Tadamon," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Observatory, which is monitoring the Syrian conflict via a network of activists in the country.
Rahman said the vehicles headed east of Syria's vast desert, where IS still holds some territory. The number of people that left the Damascus enclave is not clear.
President Bashar Assad's regime, aided by Russia and Iran, has been battling with IS fighters near Damascus for a month. The latest evacuations have come after an apparent deal that IS struck with the government.
Since April 19, pro-regime forces, including Palestinian militias, have been fighting to recapture Yarmouk, al-Tadamon and the nearby districts of Qadam and Hajar al-Aswad from the jihadi group.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights noted that at least 250 pro-regime fighters and some 233 IS militants had been killed during the month-long assault.
The fighting subsided on Saturday amid reports that IS and the Assad regime had reached an evacuation agreement.
Syria's civil war erupted out of the Arab Spring protests that swept much of the Middle East and North Africa in 2011. The conflict has since drawn in multiple warring factions from around the world.
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War with no end
Syria has been engulfed in a devastating civil war since 2011 after Syrian President Bashar Assad lost control over large parts of the country to multiple revolutionary groups. The conflict has since drawn in foreign powers and brought misery and death to Syrians.
Image: picture alliance/abaca/A. Al-Bushy
The dictator
Syria's army, officially known as the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), is loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and is fighting to restore the president's rule over the entire country. The SAA has been fighting alongside a number of pro-Assad militias such as the National Defense Force and has cooperated with military advisors from Russia and Iran, which back Assad.
Turkey, which is also part of the US-led coalition against IS, has actively supported rebels opposed to Assad. It has a tense relationship with its American allies over US cooperation with Kurdish fighters, who Ankara says are linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighting in Turkey. Turkey has launched multiple military offensives targeting Kurdish militias.
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The eastern guardian
The Kremlin has proven to be a powerful friend to Assad. Russian air power and ground troops officially joined the fight in September 2015 after years of supplying the Syrian army. Moscow has come under fire from the international community for the high number of civilian casualties during its airstrikes. However, Russia's intervention turned the tide in war in favor of Assad.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Tass/M. Metzel
The western allies
A US-led coalition of more than 50 countries, including Germany, began targeting IS and other terrorist targets with airstrikes in late 2014. The anti-IS coalition has dealt major setbacks to the militant group. The US has more than a thousand special forces in the country backing the Syrian Democratic Forces.
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The rebels
The Free Syrian Army grew out of protests against the Assad regime that eventually turned violent. Along with other non-jihadist rebel groups, it seeks the ouster of President Assad and democratic elections. After suffering a number of defeats, many of its members defected to hardline militant groups. It garnered some support from the US and Turkey, but its strength has been greatly diminished.
Image: Reuters
The resistance
Fighting between Syrian Kurds and Islamists has become its own conflict. The US-led coalition against the "Islamic State" has backed the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias. The Kurdish YPG militia is the main component of the SDF. The Kurds have had a tacit understanding with Assad.
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The new jihadists
"Islamic State" (IS) took advantage of regional chaos to capture vast swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014. Seeking to establish its own "caliphate," IS has become infamous for its fundamentalist brand of Islam and its mass atrocities. IS is on the brink of defeat after the US and Russia led separate military campaigns against the militant group.
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The old jihadists
IS is not the only terrorist group that has ravaged Syria. A number of jihadist militant groups are fighting in the conflict, warring against various rebel factions and the Assad regime. One of the main jihadist factions is Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, which controls most of Idlib province and has ties with al-Qaeda.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Nusra Front on Twitter
The Persian shadow
Iran has supported Syria, its only Arab ally, for decades. Eager to maintain its ally, Tehran has provided Damascus with strategic assistance, military training and ground troops when the conflict emerged in 2011. The Iran-backed Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah also supports the Assad regime, fighting alongside Iranian forces and paramilitary groups in the country.
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'Forced displacement'
The Assad regime still has no control over swathes of territory near Syria's border with Iraq, Turkey and Jordan. It has, however, forced IS to retreat from a number of previous jihadi-held areas with the help from Moscow.
According to the United Nations, some 110,000 people have been evacuated to northwestern Syria and rebel-controlled parts in Aleppo's north in the past two months.
Syrian opposition dubs the evacuations a policy of "forced displacement" and an attempt by Assad to change the country's demography by driving out his opponents.
The Syrian president has vowed to win back "every inch" of the country, but many areas in the east and northeast are controlled by Kurdish groups and have a US military presence.
In the country's southwest, rebels hold territory at the Israeli and Jordanian border. Assad faces the risk of conflict with Israel, which does not want to see Iranian-backed militias so close to its border.
