Syria fighters' evacuation from Zabadani 'under way'

Image copyrightGetty Images

Image captionLebanon's Shia Muslim movement Hezbollah has seen fighters killed in fighting around Zabadani

Syria's war

• Are there 70,000 Syrian 'moderates' ready to back UK?
• Turkey's downing of Russian warplane - what we know
• Russia to Turkey: Don't try it again
• Was jet downing an overreaction?

Dozens of Syrian rebel fighters are being evacuated from the village of Zabadani near the Lebanese border under a UN-brokered deal.

A convoy of buses and ambulances reached the town on Monday from Lebanon to take the fighters, and some civilians, to Beirut.

From there they will be flown to their final destination of Turkey.

The evacuation is part of a truce agreed in September covering Zabadani and two towns in the north.

About 300 families from those two besieged towns in the northern province of Idlib are also being given safe passage to Turkey, from where they will go to Lebanon.

The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) said the Lebanese Red Cross, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the UN were all involved in the operation