Last Residents Evacuated from Pro-Assad Towns in Northwestern Syria - Source

DAMASCUS (Sputnik) - The evacuation from two militant-besieged towns in northwestern Syria ended on Friday after the last 22 buses with residents were allowed to leave for Aleppo, a security source told Sputnik.

"This is the fourth motorcade carrying Fua and Kefraya residents to checkpoints in Al-Hadher and Al-Eis in Aleppo province and on to a temporary residential center in Jibrin," the source said.

The government agreed with militants this week to evacuate the two towns in Idlib province, with a combined population of over 6,000, in return for the release of 1,500 fighters from Syrian prisons.

Sources in Idlib told Sputnik the Nusra Front jihadist group had halted 22 buses after hundreds of militants declined to leave the government-controlled territory.

Fua and Kefraya have been under siege for more than three years. Some 18,000 people were trapped in the area last year, with many dying at the hands of militants or from famine.