Syrian 'White Helmets' flee to Jordan with Israeli, Western help - officials

[LiberalArkie]

JERUSALEM/AMMAN (Reuters) - Hundreds of members of Syria’s “White Helmet” civil defence group have fled advancing government forces and been spirited over the border into Jordan with the help of Israeli soldiers and Western powers, officials said on Sunday.

Israel’s army said on Twitter that Washington and European governments had asked it to move the White Helmets and their families out of southwest Syria overnight as there was “an immediate threat to their lives”.

The evacuees - who operated in rebel-held areas in Syria and ran an emergency rescue service during years of bombing attacks by Damascus and its allies - will be resettled in Britain, Germany and Canada within three months, a Jordanian government source said.

The source said 422 people were brought from Syria, over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights frontier and into Jordan, down from a figure of 800 announced earlier by the foreign ministry in Amman.

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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-israel/jordan-takes-in-syrian-white-helmets-evacuated-with-israeli-help-idUSKBN1KC05W?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=5b541b1104d3016dea49eae6&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

[Fred Sanders]

1. Why did these folk only help the "rebels" (many foreign groups in Syria)? Who would benefit from

that?

And the Syrian government let them through checkpoints...seems odd.

"A second, non-Jordanian source familiar with the agreement said the original plan had been to evacuate 800 people, but only 422 made it out as operations were hampered by government checkpoints and the expansion of Islamic State in the area."

[oasis]

2. In advance of Trump's U.S. abandonment and handover to Putin/Assad. nt