Governor of Syria's Quneitra expects insurgent evacuation today

Thomson Reuters

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The governor of Syria's Quneitra province said he expected the evacuation of insurgents to start on Friday, after rebels agreed to surrender their territory to the state.

Damascus is set to recover control of the frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, in an offensive that has swept through southwest Syria with the help of Russian air power.

Insurgents in Quneitra near the Golan agreed on Thursday to either accept the return of state rule, or leave to rebel-held Idlib province in the north.

"We are ready to move the militants out of the area, and if it is completed, we will immediately provide the necessary services to residents, including electricity and water," Quneitra Governor Hammam Dbayat told Reuters on Friday.

"We are awaiting the start of the operation and God willing it will happen today," he added.

Dbayat said it remained unclear exactly how many fighters would leave, but the government had so far prepared 45 buses.

State TV said 10 buses had entered a village in Quneitra on Thursday night for the evacuation of insurgents "who refuse to settle with the state" toward rebel territory in the north.

(Reporting by Kinda Makieh in Damascus; Writing by Ellen Francis in Beirut; Editing by Alison Williams)

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