Human Rights Group Has Doubts On Militants' Ability To Evacuate Civilians From Rukban Camp

Statements by the Free Syrian Army (FSA) opposition group on evacuation of civilians from the Rukban refugee camp may be unfounded, head of Damascus-based Syrian Human Rights Network Ahmad Kazem told Sputnik on Monday.

BEIRUT (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th September, 2018) Statements by the Free Syrian Army (FSA) opposition group on evacuation of civilians from the Rukban refugee camp may be unfounded, head of Damascus-based Syrian Human Rights Network Ahmad Kazem told Sputnik on Monday.

On Sunday, a number of Syrian opposition media outlets issued a statement of one of the FSA groups, Liwa Shuhada al-Qaryatayn, which announced plans to evacuate residents of the Rukban refugee camp and the group's fighters to northern Syria.

"I got information that all groups with links to the FSA are not reliable and can throw under the bus everyone including those acting in line with their interests," Kazem said.

He called the militants' statements a "political game."

The Rukban refugee camp, which now hosts about 50,000-60,000 people, is located in southern Syria on the border with Jordan on the territory controlled by the US-led coalition and allied Syrian opposition groups.

The Syrian army is positioned on the borders of this zone. Moscow and Washington accuse each other of hindering the delivery of UN humanitarian assistance to the area.

Syrian Interior Ministry spokesman Hassan Marouf said on August 30 at a meeting of the Russian-Syrian Joint Coordination Committee on the return of refugees to Syria that the first organized transfer of Syrian citizens from the Rukban refugee camp to their homes was planned.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Russia is working closely with the United States on the evacuation of refugees from the Rukban camp to the territory controlled by the Syrian government.