(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) The Syrian forces, backed by fighters from the Lebanese Hezbollah group, have forcibly evacuated the residents of Al-Zabadani city near the borders with Lebanon, Syria Mubasher Network (SLN) reported on Monday.
The evacuees were sent from Al-Maamoura and Al-Inshaat neighborhoods to Madaya and Baqin towns on the northwestern rural outskirts of Damascus.
The move, the second of its kind, runs counter to the ceasefire agreement between the Syrian regular troops and the opposition Ahrar Al-Shaam (freemen of the Levant) movement.
The agreement, brokered by Iran and sponsored by the United Nations, covers Kafarya and Fu'ah towns controlled by the opposition group in Idlib governorate.
In a related development Jaish Al-Islam group said its fighters killed over four dozens of Syrian soldiers and destroyed several vehicles in the ongoing battles in the Eastern Ghouta of Damascus, according to the SLN report.
Meanwhile, opposition activists said a new mass grave, with 40 bodies inside, was discovered in Abo-Hammam village in the eastern governorate of Deir Azzur.
The victims, yet to be identified, are believed to be killed by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants who forced Sha'itat clansmen to leave the village a year ago, according to a statement by the Dadmend human rights center.
This is the sixth mass grave bearing the hallmarks of the ISIL that commits atrocities against civilians who have refused to owe allegiance to it since last summer, Dadmend said, noting that the total number of victims topped 750.
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