MOADAMIYEH, Syria (AP) — The Latest on Syria's conflict (all times local):

11:20 a.m.

Dozens of Syrians living in a besieged rebel-held suburb of the capital, Damascus, have begun evacuating the area following a deal struck with the government that grants amnesty to gunmen and restores state control.

An Associated Press reporter in Moadamiyeh says security forces searched the luggage of dozens of men, women, and children before they boarded buses Friday, heading out of the suburb to shelters in a government-controlled neighborhood nearby.

Moadamiyeh, which a U.N. report said was gassed with toxic sarin in 2013, has suffered a three-year government siege.

About 300 people are leaving Moadamiyeh, which has an estimated population of 28,000, under the first part of the deal's implementation. It follows closely after the full evacuation of the nearby rebel-held suburb Daraya, which was widely criticized as a forced displacement.

—Albert Aji in Moadamiyeh, Syria

10:20 a.m.

Turkey's president denies claims by U.S. officials that Syrian Kurdish rebels fighting Turkish forces in northern Syria have withdrawn east of the Euphrates River.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday as he departed for the G20 meeting in China, "they tell us that YPG (a Syrian Kurdish force) has crossed east of the Euphrates. And we say: no they did not."

Erdogan is apparently referring to U.S. officials saying earlier this week that the Kurds have mostly moved to the east of the river, as demanded by Turkey.

Last week, Turkey sent troops across the border to help Syrian rebels capture the town of Jarablus. But then clashes broke out with the Kurds. Turkey does not want the rebels it considers terrorists to form a corridor on its border.