Beirut/Damascus - The Syrian government
moved closer to ending rebel resistance in eastern Ghouta as
civilians streamed out of one of its besieged, bomb-battered
towns on Thursday and insurgents prepared to surrender another.
The army assault on eastern Ghouta, an area of towns and
farmland just outside Damascus, has been one of the most intense
in Syria's seven-year-old war, killing more than 1 500 people in
a relentless bombardment with war planes, shells and rockets.
A Reuters witness said buses had driven into the town of
Harasta and a Syrian military source said 600 to 700 fighters
were expected to be among about 2 000 people leaving in them in
the coming hours for opposition areas in northwestern Syria.
Hundreds of people including scores of fighters had already
started boarding buses at an assembly point inside Harasta, the
military source said. Between 18 000-20 000 people were expected
to stay in Harasta under government rule, the source added.
Meanwhile, state television reported that more than 6 000
people had fled the larger rebel-held town of Douma since
Wednesday, crossing over into government-held territory.
The Ahrar al-Sham group's decision to surrender Harsata
leaves only Douma and another rebel pocket in eastern Ghouta
that includes the towns of Jobar, Ein Terma, Arbin and Zamalka.
They are all that remain of the main insurgent stronghold
near the Syrian capital Damascus, the biggest prize for
President Bashar al-Assad in his fight against the rebels since
the recapture of Aleppo in late 2016.
Air strikes pummelled parts of eastern Ghouta on Thursday
morning, striking Arbin and Zamalka and killing 19 people,
according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war
monitoring group.
An army officer interviewed on state television urged rebels
who had not yet negotiated a deal to quit. "Death is coming for
you if you do not surrender," he said.
On Sunday, Assad drove himself to a newly captured
battlefront in eastern Ghouta, a demonstration of his seemingly
unassailable position in the war that has been going his way
since Russia sent its air force to help him in 2015.
The deal to surrender Harasta is the first by eastern Ghouta
rebels and began on Thursday with a prisoner swap. In an
interview with state television, a Syrian soldier freed by
rebels wept and thanked God and the army for his release.
The Reuters witness at the crossing with Harasta said the
army had removed barriers from the old frontline lying across
the road into the town to allow the buses to pass.
The Russian Defence Ministry website showed what it said was
live footage from the al-Wafideen crossing point from Douma into
government areas. Over a period of several minutes, it showed
dozens of people in small groups coming around a corner and
trekking along the dirt road past armed soldiers.
Some bore bundles of their possessions, others carried small
children or pushed prams. Behind were fields and trees. At one
point in the road a man could be seen in a red shirt with the
logo of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.
Douma is the most populous area in eastern Ghouta, and for
more than a week it has been entirely surrounded by the
government. The Jaish al-Islam rebel group that holds the town
has said it is determined to fight on after a month-long
government offensive that has taken 70 percent of the former
opposition enclave in eastern Ghouta.
However, the Observatory said people leaving the area were
doing so under an agreement between the group and the
government's closest ally Russia.
FEROCITY
The Syrian government and Russia have both accused rebels in
eastern Ghouta of stopping civilians leaving the area. They say
their assault, which the Observatory says has killed more than
1 500 people so far, is needed to end Islamist militant rule
over the area's people.
They also say it is needed to end rebel shelling of Damascus
and other nearby areas. On Tuesday, a rocket struck a
marketplace in a government-held town, killing dozens.
However, the ferocity of the Syrian army's offensive in
eastern Ghouta has prompted Western condemnation and urgent
pleas from United Nations humanitarian agencies for a ceasefire.
Over the past week, tens of thousands of people have fled
across the frontlines into government territory.
For the Harasta rebels, the journey to Idlib is one already
well trodden by insurgents from other areas surrendered to Assad
after prolonged sieges and intense bombardments of the kind used
against eastern Ghouta over the past month.
The northwestern province is the biggest remaining area
under rebel control in Syria and its population has been doubled
by refugees fleeing other areas including many opposition
supporters.
A military media unit run by Assad's ally Hezbollah on
Wednesday said some 1,500 fighters along with 6,000 family
members would depart Harasta under the agreement with the
government.
On Thursday the same Hezbollah media unit said the army and
Ahrar al-Sham had started to exchange prisoners as the Harasta
deal got under way.