<span style="color: #222222;">In Syria, several thousand residents have been evacuated from two pro-government villages in northwestern area, as part of a negotiated deal with insurgents. <br />''<br />''Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group today said about 6,900 civilians and fighters were evacuated from Fuaa and Kafraya villages. <br />''<br />''Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said, the Syrian government also started releasing detainees from jail. <br />''<br />''A deal was reached on Tuesday between regime-backer Russia and rebel-ally Turkey to evacuate the residents to the government-held territory in exchange for the release of prisoners from government jails.<br />''</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> The Shiite-majority villages in Idlib province have been under siege since 2015 by rebels and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a terrorist group led by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate.</span><br />''