This frame grab from video provided by the government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media, shows buses carrying Syrian rebels and their families, as they leave from Madaya an opposition-held town near Damascus, Syria, Friday..
"I just couldn't bear it".
"Madaya cried today - the ones who stayed and the ones who left".
"The 'Four Towns agreement, ' which previously allowed for aid deliveries and medical evacuations for the towns of Madaya and Zabadani in return for reciprocal measures for Al Fu'ah and Kefraya in Idlib, remained dysfunctional after breaking down in the fall of 2016", said Siege Watch, a USA think-tank which tracks the Syrian conflict, in its most recent report.
The evacuation is not obligatory and people who want to be evacuated from Kefraya and Foah are to be transported to Aleppo, now under government control.
Zabadani residents are also being evacuated, which makes for more than 30,000 people displaced.
"Yesterday, there was deep sorrow, everyone said their goodbyes", Hussam Mahmoud, an activist and former member of the United Relief Organization in Madaya and Zabadani told Syria Direct on Thursday.
All 16,000 residents of Fuaa and Kafraya are expected to head to government-held Aleppo, the coastal province of Latakia or Damascus.
Thousands of people will board buses on Friday (14 April) and be exchanged between government-held and insurgent-held areas of the country. Those who opt to leave with the fighters will head to rebel-held territory in Idlib.
The four towns are part of a longstanding agreement reached in 2015, that requires aid deliveries and evacuations to be carried out in all areas simultaneously.
But access has been limited, with food and medical shortages causing malnutrition, illness and even death among besieged residents.
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According to the United Nations, at least 4.7 million people are living in hard-to-reach and besieged areas in Syria and are exposed to grave protection threats.
More than a hundred coaches are evacuating pro-government civilians surrounded by rebels in the north, while opposition supporters are being moved away from Damascus.
The mainly Sunni rebels have charged that Assad's Alawaite minority-dominated regime is deliberately forcing civilians to leave to alter the country's sectarian map in its favour.
"They of course wanted to beat the Sunni rebels into submission", said Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma.
Madaya and Zabadani are the latest in a constellation of towns once held by the opposition around Damascus to submit to government rule.
The deal was brokered by Iran and Qatar, AFP reported.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault on Friday dismissed Assad's comments as "100% lies and propaganda".
He insisted that Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons inspectors should visit both the air base and Khan Sheikhoun as soon as possible.
"We consider it unacceptable to analyse events from a distance", he said after meeting his Syrian and Iranian counterparts.
"Whatever comes from USA politicians, if their words are created to overthrow the DPRK system and government, we will categorically reject them", he said.
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