Convoy crosses to Syria to evacuate opposition fighters, civilians from border village

MASNAA, Lebanon – A Lebanese convoy has crossed into Syria to evacuate dozens of opposition fighters and civilians from a border village.

The evacuation is part of a U.N.-backed truce deal reached in September for two key Syrian battleground areas that will see the transfer of thousands of Shiite and Sunni civilians and fighters from one area to another.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 129 civilians and fighters will be brought from the predominantly Sunni village of Zabadani near Lebanon to Beirut where they will be flown to Turkey.

The group says 338 civilians will leave the Syrian Shiite villages of Foua and Kfarya toward Turkey and will later be flown to Lebanon.

A convoy of more than 30 Lebanese Red Cross ambulances crossed into Syria Monday for the evacuation.