Scouting and Guiding in Syria

The Syrian authorities have confirmed that Al-Zabadani resort town, 25km from Damascus, has recently been liberated by the Syrian Army after a fierce battle with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militants. Residents, who left the city more than five years ago, have started to return homes.

A massive car bomb attack on a convoy carrying evacuees from besieged government-held towns in Syria killed at least 126 people, of them at least 68 chilren, and wounded hundreds, a monitor said on April 16.

The blast on April 15 tore through buses carrying residents from the northern towns of Fuaa and Kafraya as they waited at a transit point in rebel-held Rashidin, west of Aleppo.

U.N. convoys delivering aid to thousands of besieged Syrians were due to set out on Feb. 17, after  Syria's government approved access to seven besieged areas, including the city of Madaya, U.N. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura's office said on Feb. 16 in Damascus following a meeting with Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Muallem.

Aid convoys have made new deliveries of fuel, food and medicine to four besieged Syrian towns, humanitarian officials said on Jan. 19.

The United Nations, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Syria's Red Crescent (SARC) said in a joint statement that simultaneous deliveries reached the towns on Jan. 18.

Turkey provided logistic support for the evacuation of two besieged areas on Dec. 28 under a United Nations-sponsored agreement brokered by regional powers that are part of efforts by the U.N. to establish local deals on cease-fires and safe passage. 

Ambulances and buses entered the besieged rebel-held Syrian town of Zabadani on Dec. 28 to ferry scores of the insurgents to Turkey under a deal brokered by the United Nations, rebel sources there said. 

Under the deal, rebel fighters holed up for months in the town near the Lebanese border have been promised safe passage to Beirut airport, then on to Turkey. 

An agreement was reached on Sept.24 between the warring parties in Syria for a six-month truce in the rebel-held town of Zabadani and two Shiite towns in the northwest, a monitor said.

Syrian pro-government forces and Islamist rebels have agreed to begin a ceasefire from midday on Sept.20 in three battleground districts, a monitoring group and a local official told AFP.

A new 48-hour truce between Syrian regime forces and rebels in three towns entered into force on Aug. 27 after negotiations, a mediator and a monitoring group said.

Ankara contributed to the declaration of a recent 48-hour cease-fire among Syria's warring parties in a frontline area, Turkish officials have claimed.

"Turkey made an indirect contribution in providing the truce," sources from the Foreign Ministry told the Hürriyet Daily News on Aug. 12, noting that Ankara would continue any efforts for truce in Syria.