1,500 leave rebel-held district in Damascus
At least 1,500 civilians and rebels evacuated an opposition district in Damascus yesterday, state media said, bringing the government closer to cementing its control over the Syrian capital. The evacuations from the Qabun district in northeast Damascus follow similar departures from the Barzeh and Tishrin neighborhoods earlier this week. An AFP correspondent inside Qabun saw around a dozen white buses carrying out residents and fighters in the morning, after a deal for the neighborhood was announced late Saturday following heavy fighting.
At the edge of the district, two women embraced and wept as they faced the prospect of parting ways. Suad, 22, was leaving behind her friend Mona, also 22, to follow her family to Idlib province, a rebelheld area in the northwest of the country. “I didn’t want to leave, but I have to stay with my family, and they prefer to go Idlib after my uncle left with the group from Barzeh,” said Suad, wearing a white headscarf and a blue top. “I never thought one day I’d be in this position,” she added, sobbing heavily. “I can’t describe how I feel.”
Those evacuating carried small bags with them as they boarded the buses, while others who had decided to stay registered their names at a military post. The evacuation deal came on Saturday night after government forces advanced inside the neighborhood. “The Syrian army yesterday managed to encircle dozens of armed elements inside Qabun neighbourhood, forcing them to surrender and hand over their weapons,” a source from the pro-regime National Defense Forces militia told AFP.
The signs of the recent fighting, as well as years of prior bombardment and clashes, were visible all around with rubble from partially and completely destroyed buildings strewn across the roads. Tanks sent up clouds of dusts as they maneuvered over the mounds of rubble and dirt and black smoke rose from fires still burning in the neighborhood. “A few days ago we couldn’t be here. The road was too dangerous,” said one soldier. Others showed off a tunnel they had discovered, one of many that rebels use to connect besieged neighborhoods. “This tunnel is ten metres deep, and connects Qabun with the town of Arbin” in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta, one soldier said. — AFP