Syria forces enter Dumayr after rebel evacuation

DAMASCUS: Syrian regime forces entered the town of Dumayr on Thursday after the last rebel fighters left as part of a Russian-brokered transfer agreement, state media said.

State agency SANA reported "the end of evacuation operations for the Jaish al-Islam terrorists and their families" and said they were bussed to the Jarabulus region.

Around 5,000 people, including 1,500 fighters, were transferred from Dumayr, which lies east of Damascus and where the Islamist group had been allowed to stay as part of an earlier reconciliation deal.

The deal had looked threatened Wednesday when a negotiator who had been in touch with Russian officials was shot dead after a round of talks.

It comes a week after Jaish al-Islam evacuated the last opposition-held town in the onetime rebel bastion of Eastern Ghouta, closer to Damascus.

Their departure paved the way for the Syrian army to declare its full control over Ghouta, after a ferocious two-month military assault on the enclave.

The offensive ended with a trio of evacuation deals that saw tens of thousands of rebels and civilians bussed up to northern Syria.

The government of President Bashar al-Assad appears to be seeking to replace 2016 reconciliation agreements with evacuation deals in several other locations.

Talks are also under way for other towns, mostly around Damascus.