A group of several hundred Syrians from two besieged towns arrived outside Damascus Tuesday after passing through Turkey and Lebanon as part of a rare U.N.-backed deal to evacuate people from flashpoint areas.

A source close to the deal confirmed the arrival of over 300 people from the government-controlled towns of Fuaa and Kafraya in northwestern Idlib province to the Sayyida Zeinab area south of the capital.

Since his house on the outskirts of Damascus was destroyed two years ago, Abu Ziad's dented, decades-old pickup truck has been not only his sole source of income but also his home.

Abu Ziad is one of more than 11 million Syrians, or half the population, who have been forced from their homes by the conflict that has been raging across the country since 2011.

Relatives of Aylan Kurdi -- the toddler whose limp body was photographed on a Turkish beach, becoming a heartbreaking symbol of the Syrian refugee crisis -- arrived Monday in Canada where they hope to rebuild their lives.

Canadian media showed the boy's aunt Tima Kurdi, who now lives in Vancouver after emigrating to Canada in 1992, in tears as she welcomed her brother Mohammed, his wife Ghousun and their three children, at the airport.

General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim defended the exchange that took place on Monday between the Syrian regime and rebels that saw the transfer of gunmen through Lebanese territory from the Zabadani area, reported al-Joumhouria newspaper on Tuesday.

He told the daily: “Lebanon played a humanitarian, social, and civil role in the operation.”

More than 120 rebels and wounded from the flashpoint Syrian border town of Zabadani traveled Monday from Beirut's airport to Turkey as part of a U.N.-backed truce.

A convoy carrying them had earlier in the day crossed from Syria into Lebanon through the Masnaa border crossing.

At least 14 people were killed and dozens wounded in large bomb blasts Monday in the central Syrian city of Homs, state media reported.

"The preliminary toll in simultaneous terrorist explosions that hit the city's Al-Zahraa neighborhood is 14 dead and 132 wounded," state television reported in a news flash.

Fierce clashes in northern Syria between regime loyalists and rebels including al-Qaida fighters have left more than 70 dead, a monitoring group said Saturday.

Al-Qaida affiliate Al-Nusra Front launched the assault on Friday with a suicide attack against forces loyal to President Bashar Assad in Aleppo province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Air raids by Syrian government warplanes killed 20 civilians, including seven children, in an area southeast of Damascus on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

Dozens more people were also wounded in the raids on the centre of Hammuriyeh in Eastern Ghouta, the largest rebel stronghold in Damascus province.

An alliance of Kurdish and Arab rebels advanced Thursday against the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria's north in a new offensive backed by U.S.-led air strikes, its spokesman said.

Talal Sello, spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces, told AFP the SDF offensive was launched late Wednesday in Aleppo province.

One of three suspected rebels killed in fighting in the restive North Caucasus was trained by "terrorists" in a camp in Syria, Russian authorities said Thursday.

The trio were killed by special forces on Tuesday in the Kabardino-Balkaria region, near Georgia, close to a mountain village called Lechinkai, said a spokesman for the national anti-terror committee, quoted by the Interfax news agency.