Monitors and security sources say a U.N.-brokered plan to evacuate thousands of jihadist fighters under siege near the Syrian capital has been delayed following Friday's killing of an anti-government rebel leader who was to guarantee safe passage to the militants.
The evacuation of some 4,000 fighters and their families from southern Damascus had been expected to take place early Saturday. But the Britain-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the deal stalled hours after rebel leader Zahran Alloush was killed Friday in an airstrike near Damascus.