Children taste fruit after 4-year siege
Families evacuated from the Syrian town of Daraya spoke of their delight as their children tasted fresh fruit and vegetables after living on grass and soup for four years under a crippling siege.
At least 4000 people were escorted out by government forces, who declared that they had taken full control of the town on Saturday evening. The Damascus suburb was one of the first to rise up against President Bashar alassad in 2011 and has been levelled by a fierce campaign of shelling, barrel bombs and incendiary weapons.
Most families were taken to reception centres in the nearby government-held town of Hrajela as part of an agreement between the regime and rebels, who had been told to give up the area to end the onslaught. About 700 opposition fighters and their relatives were also permitted to travel to the rebel-held city of Idlib, north of the capital, in the deal. The UN said it hoped that another truce would be agreed in Aleppo, where a children’s funeral in the rebel-held areas was targeted on Sunday, killing 23 people.
In another part of northern Syria a Turkish soldier and at least 35 civilians were killed in clashes between the Turkish army and Kurdish forces.
The soldier died on Sunday when by a rocket fired from territory held by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – a coalition dominated by the Kurdish YPG militia – hit a Turkish tank in the border town of Jarabulus.
The Turkish air force struck back against SDF positions and activists said that villagers in the area were killed yesterday. The Turkish military and a coalition of Syrian rebels stormed into the border town on Thursday, ostensibly to beat back Isis but largely to prevent further Kurdish land grabs.
The families from Daraya, still in shock after surrendering their homes, took comfort yesterday in their first proper meal in years. Many children born during the siege had never seen tomatoes or sweets. ‘‘Everything is available – vegetables, fruits, bread, biscuits. We have not tasted them for years,’’ said Sawsan, 32, a teacher, who described living off a single bowl of watery soup a day.
‘‘One child was given two sweets. He ate one and told his mother to save the other for tomorrow, fearing he might not eat again,’’ she told The Times from Idlib, where her family had moved.
She added that many were shocked when residents greeted them by throwing rice – a precious commodity in Daraya – in the air like confetti. In Hrajela similar scenes of relief played out, though families fearful of reprisals from the regime were less eager to talk.
‘‘My children, who are three and five, were very surprised to see tomatoes. It was the first time for them,’’ said Houda, 30, speaking from her new home in a refugee shelter. ‘‘All we had to survive on was grass.’’
Next door, Yazan, 4, gorged for the first time on ice cream. ‘‘Yazan asked me if ice cream was some kind of cake. He’s never tasted sweets before. He was over the moon when he saw biscuits,’’ his mother, Amina, 38, said.
The suburb, which had a prewar population of 79,000, became the symbol of resistance after it was cut off by the regime in 2012. It received one delivery of aid in June, the first in four years.
Residents said that they had been living off soup and growing lettuce and herbs on the pavements outside their homes. The UN said this year that the regime had refused countless requests to deliver supplies and that people were starving to death. Desperate families were also reduced to digging holes and hiding to escape bombings.