Evacuation begins in four besieged Syrian towns

The Syrian government and rebel forces have begun an operation to move people away from four besieged towns, activists say, the BBC reports.

People from Foah and Kefraya, two government-held towns in the north-west, have arrived in Rashideen, west of Aleppo, AFP news agency reports.

Similar operations have begun in rebel-held Madaya and Zabadani, near Damascus.

More than 30,000 people are expected to be evacuated under the deal.

Some 4.7 million people live in hard-to-reach and besieged areas in Syria, including 644,000 in UN-declared besieged locations.