The Syrian army and allied troops say they have laid siege to the rebel-held enclave in Deraa and were poised to gain complete control of the city where the uprising against President Bashar's Assad rule first erupted.
A spokesman for the opposition in the southern Syrian city said several thousand people were now encircled after the army pushed into a main base west of the city without a fight before a formal evacuation of rebels opposed to a Russian-brokered surrender deal.
"The army and its militias have besieged Deraa completely," he said.
A deal was reached on Friday between Russian officers and rebel representatives that surrendered Deraa along with other towns in the southern province that borders Jordan, in another victory for Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies.
In other parts of the deal, Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels who once received Western support continued to hand over border posts along the frontier with Jordan, east of Deraa province, that it had been in control of since the early days of the conflict.
