Syria rebels to free 1,500 families for food, prisoners

In a first phase and as a gesture of goodwill over exchange agreement between rebels and Syrian regime, a family of eight people has been released on Tuesday from the city of Adra, east north Damascus, a close newspaper to Bashar Assad’s regime said.

On Monday, rebels have agreed to free 1,500 families in exchange for food and the release of jailed opponents of al-Assad has entered into force on Tuesday by releasing a family of 8 people according to Al-Watan newspaper.

The reported agreement involves the release of families held by rebels in Adra, a flashpoint town northeast of Damascus currently under siege by government troops, AFP said.

Under the deal, food supplies would be allowed into Adra, and an unspecified number of people held in regime jails would be set free, in exchange for the release of the 1,500 families held in the town, said Al-Watan.

While the edges of Adra are under government control, the interior of the town, which has Sunni, Alawite and Christian communities, is in rebel hands.

It is strategically located on the northeastern entrance to Damascus, and has in the past been used as a launching pad for attacks on the edges of the capital.

Today it is totally under army siege, while the interior of the town is under rebel control.

When the rebels took Adra in mid-December, they prevented thousands of people -- many of them from Syria's Alawite and Christian minorities -- from leaving.

An activist in Adra told AFP via the Internet he could not confirm whether any deal was in the making, but he said the humanitarian situation for people in the town was dire.

"A kilo of rice is sold here at $8. Today, a little child died as a result of the food shortages," said Abul Baraa.

The deal reported by Al-Watan was being discussed with religious leaders in Douma, a rebel bastion near Adra.

National Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar told AFP: "I don't want to discuss this question with the press before the talks are completed."

At the end of December, at the height of the fighting around Adra, the regime said it had evacuated more than 5,000 residents who had been blocked from leaving by rebels, according to state news agency SANA.

The rebels control Adra's workers' city, once home to workers of all religious groups who travelled to the Damascus outskirts for work. The army is still in control of the rest of Adra.  With AFP