About 7,000 people yesterday departed eastern Ghouta for Syrian rebel territory near the Turkish border under a deal arranged by Russia to surrender the enclave to the Syrian government, Russian state media and a war monitor said.
Rebels have been gradually leaving Ghouta since Thursday last week, accepting safe passage for themselves and their families to Idlib in northwestern Syria after they were defeated in a fierce assault by the Russian-backed Syrian military.
It marks the biggest setback for the rebellion against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since insurgents were driven from eastern Aleppo in 2016, underscoring his unassailable military position in the seven-year-long conflict.
Photo: AFP
A convoy of at least 100 buses left eastern Ghouta about 3am carrying rebel fighters, their families and other civilians who had been holed up in a pocket centered around the towns of Arbin, Ain Tarma and Zamalka.
The majority were rebel fighters and their families, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Russian news agency TASS said almost 6,800 rebels and their families were moved from eastern Ghouta to Idlib, bringing the total number of rebels transported out of the area to 13,190 in the past three days.
More departures were expected later yesterday.
Syrian state TV said the army freed 28 people who had been held captive by militants in Arbin, while the Observatory said their release was part of the deal agreed by rebels.
The Syrian military split eastern Ghouta into three separate zones during its assault that began on Feb. 18 and has killed more than 1,600 people, the Observatory has said.
The pocket being evacuated at present was controlled by the Failaq al-Rahman group.
The last remaining area in Ghouta controlled by rebels is the town of Douma, where tens of thousands of civilians are sheltering.
Douma is held by Jaish al-Islam, which is in talks with Russia, but has publicly rejected the idea of moving to the northwest, calling this “forced displacement” that amounts to a policy of “demographic change” by the Syrian government.
Syrian state TV said that buses had begun entering the Failaq al-Rahman-held zone yesterday to evacuate more people to Idlib.
In addition to their foothold in the northwest, rebels still hold a chunk of territory at the frontier with Jordan and Israel, and small enclaves near Damascus, Homs and Hama.
THE TRIP
A bus trip from eastern Ghouta to Qalaat al-Madiq in Hama Province, at the gates of mostly rebel-held Idlib, takes at least 12 hours and comes with strict Russian and Syrian military inspections.
Russian military vehicles take turns escorting the buses along the way.
“They searched us, they took our names, and they took several ammunition magazines from each fighter,” Mohammed Omar Kheir, 20, told Agence France-Presse as he prepared to leave the bombed-out town of Arbin in eastern Ghouta. “The Russian military police was overseeing the whole operation.”
Eastern Ghouta “was really difficult,” said a passenger named Mohammed, who had just arrived in the town of Qalaat al-Madiq and did not give his last name.
“They deprived us of all basic needs. We had no water and lots of illnesses spread,” he said. “They made our life a total hell.”
Additional reporting by AFP
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