Around 450 Syrian fighters and their families were evacuated from two besieged areas on Monday under the kind of operation that the United Nations hopes can be a stepping stone toward a wider peace accord in the country's civil war.
U.N. and airport sources said two planes with 330 Syrian Shi'ite fighters and civilians evacuated from two pro-government towns in northwestern Syria arrived in Beirut airport.
Hundreds of Hezbollah supporters there set off fireworks in celebration.
Another plane carrying 126 mostly Sunni Muslim rebel fighters trapped in Zabadani near the Lebanese border landed at Hatay airport in southern Turkey, the sources said.
In return for allowing the rebels to leave, the deal allows the government of President Bashar al-Assad to restore control over areas that had been in rebel hands for the past four years.