UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said in a statement Friday that the agency was “deeply concerned about the fate of civilians” in Yarmouk and surrounding areas, adding that reports had emerged of civilian casualties as well as displacement of large numbers of people. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition watchdog monitoring the violence in Syria using a network of activists, reported on Friday that Islamic State representatives had relented and had accepted the evacuation agreement. Those who chose to lay down their arms could stay, he added.Īmaq, a news agency affiliated with Islamic State, said in a report released on its social media channel Friday that more than 100 airstrikes had targeted the area since Thursday. Later, he said there were reports that a ceasefire was about to be put in place but was waiting on the rebels to submit fully to the terms of a deal that would see most of them depart to the opposition-controlled province of Idlib in Syria’s northwest or to the eastern desert region still under Islamic State’s sway. Smoke engulfed the area’s drab buildings before the camera focused on a slow-growing yellow bloom of an explosion farther away. As he spoke, the sound of sustained heavy machine gun fire could be heard.
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