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On Thursday, an agreement was reached between the Syrian government and ISIS fighters besieged in the eastern Hama pocket. The agreement will allow ISIS members to withdraw to Idlib governorate. according to the Syrian Radio station Sham FM.
On Wednesday, the Syrian government allowed 1,500 civilians and ISIS family members to withdraw to an area controlled by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in Idlib governorate.
ISIS fighters could chooose Idlib because they had excellent relationships with HTS fighters there as they both worked in weapons and oil trafficking, according to opposition sources.
At the sae time, a report of the pro-government blog al-Masdar News claimed that the Syrian government will evacuate ISIS fighters to Deir Ezzor governorate.
After the US-led collation aggressive reaction to the Deir Ezzor deal it would be not logical to make another try to do the same thing.
Now it is extremely hard to determine which one of the two reports is the correct one. There is also a big chance that some ISIS fighters in the eastern Hama countryside pocket have chosen to defect to HTS and to withdraw to Idlib governorate, while others want to leave to the ISIS-held area in Deir Ezzor governorate.
So far both reports are not confirmed by any side, and there is also a chance that the deal is only for civilians as tens of thousands of civilians who refuse to live in government-held areas are still trapped in the ISIS pocket.
