Syria evacuates 5,000 from town near Damascus

                
The Syrian government evacuated some 5,000 people Sunday from an embattled industrial town near Damascus where al-Qaida-linked rebels have been battling government troops for more than two weeks, the state news agency said.             

Opposition fighters from Jabhat al-Nusra, or the Nusra Front, swept into Adra northeast of the capital in mid-December, reportedly killing civilians, many of whom are members of the Alawite and Druse sects. Both minority communities largely support President Bashar Assad, who himself is an Alawite, against the primarily Sunni-led rebellion.              

Shortly after the rebels pushed into Adra, Syrian soldiers surrounded the area and there has been heavy fighting there since.              

On Sunday, Minister for Social Affair Kinda al-Shammat said more than 5,000 people were evacuated from the town. In a statement carried by the SANA state news agency, Shammat said the people have been moved to a safe place, and the ministry has established operation rescue rooms to offer aid and support.    
            
Meanwhile, an activist group said the death toll from nearly two weeks of Syrian government airstrikes on opposition-held areas of the northern city of Aleppo has surpassed 500.             

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sunday the aerial campaign killed at least 517 people, including 151 children and 46 women, as of midnight Saturday. The Observatory monitors the conflict through a network of activists on the ground.                

Government aircraft have pummeled rebel neighborhoods of the divided city since Dec. 15, often with crude barrel bombs that cause massive damage upon impact. The assault has flooded hospitals with casualties, putting a significant strain on already strapped resources.               
The Syrian government hasn't commented on the campaign.

Ships train for Syrian chemical weapons transport:
         
A Danish-Norwegian flotilla is preparing to remove Syria's chemical weapons from the war-torn country by conducting emergency rescue drills off the southern coast of Cyprus.
     
Flotilla spokesman Eystein Malkenes Kvarving said Sunday the four-ship group is carrying out seaborne drills, including firefighting and ship-to-ship transfers of injured personnel.
     
Two cargo ships and their warship escorts are waiting at Cyprus' Limassol port for word on when they can travel to Syria to begin hauling out more than 1,000 tons of chemical agents.
     
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the U.N. said Saturday that a Dec. 31 deadline to remove the most toxic chemicals is unlikely to be met.
     
Kvarving said the ships will likely make more than one trip to Syria to pick up all the agents.


AP