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by James Tweedie
SYRIAN troops re-entered the Damascus town of Darayya yesterday after four years of extremist occupation.
The government struck a deal with Martyrs of Islam Brigade on Thursday to allow its 700 gunmen and their families to evacuate the town on the outskirts of the capital, leaving behind their heavy weapons.
Dozens of Red Cross workers arrived to supervise the militants’ departure in cars and on buses to north-western Idlib province, in the grip of the Levant Conquest Front — al-Qaida’s recently rebranded Syrian branch.
Jubilant Syrian troops waved their guns in the air, chanted slogans and took photographs in the liberated town.
A similar deal was recently struck in neighbouring Moadhimiyah after the army’s 4th Division cut the road linking the two.
The group, well supplied with US-made TOW anti-tank missiles despite the supposed siege of Darayya, seized control in 2012 at the start of the West’s proxy war on Syria.
The truce frees up some 2,500 much-needed troops to tip the balance on other fronts, such as in the nearby Army of Islam stronghold of Ghouta where the Republican Guard has been advancing in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held talks with his US counterpart John Kerry in Geneva on Syria and other issues, with UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura attending later in the day.
During a break the tight-lipped Russian described progress as “excellent.” Mr Kerry had in recent weeks hinted that the two countries could reach agreement on defeating al-Qaida.
