‘Chemical attacks forced us to quit’
BEIRUT: A top Syrian rebel official said yesterday that his faction only agreed to abandon its battered enclave because of an alleged toxic gas attack.
“Of course, the chemical attack is what pushed us to agree” to a withdrawal from Douma, said Yasser Dalwan, a high-ranking member of Jaish al-Islam.
It was the first public acknowledgement by Jaish al-Islam of a deal reached for Douma, their last rebel holdout in the eastern Ghouta suburb of Damascus.
The agreement was announced on Sunday by Syria’s government and its ally Russia, just hours after toxic gases were allegedly released on Douma.
First responders there said more than 40 people died on Saturday after suffering symptoms consistent with chemical exposure, including wheezing, discoloured skin and foaming at the mouth.
Analysts have said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad may have used toxic gas to terrify Douma's residents and push rebels to withdraw without a fight.
Jaish al-Islam had long insisted that it would refuse to agree to an evacuation deal for Douma.
But since the alleged attack, several thousand rebels and civilians have left Douma for opposition-held territory in the north.
Meanwhile, Syrian government forces have raised their flag over the last rebel bastion in eastern Ghouta, taking full control of the town of Douma as insurgents withdraw, Russian news agencies reported yesterday, sealing a major victory for Assad.
“The raised state flag over a building in the town of Douma has heralded the control over this location and, therefore, over the whole of eastern Ghouta,” said Major-General Yuri Yevtushenko, head of the Russian Peace and Reconciliation Centre in Syria.
Russian military police were deployed in Douma yesterday in accordance with the rebel surrender deal, Russia’s RIA news agency reported.
Some 40,000 people, including thousands of rebels and their families, were leaving Douma for opposition areas in northern Syria under the agreement.