REBELS AND FAMILIES STREAM OUT OF EASTERN GHOUTA

▶ Syria government forces turn the screw on faltering resistance fighters

The Syrian government moved closer to ending rebel resistance in Eastern Ghouta on Thursday, as civilians streamed out of one of its besieged neighbourhoods and insurgents prepared to surrender another.

The assault on the area, a collection of suburbs outside Damascus, has been one of the most intense in the seven-year war in Syria, killing more than 1,500 people.

Witnesses said buses drove 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 north-west Syria.

Hundreds of people, including scores of fighters, had started boarding buses at an assembly point inside Harasta, the military source said. Between 18,000 and 20,000 people were expected to stay there, under government rule, the source said.

Syrian 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 Salafist Ahrar Al Sham group’s decision to surrender Harasta leaves Douma and one other rebel pocket in Eastern Ghouta, which 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 the government of President Bashar Al Assad in its fight against the rebels since the recapture of Aleppo in late 2016.

Rebels fired rockets from Eastern Ghouta into Damascus on Thursday, killing two people, state media reported.

Government air strikes hit 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, Mr Al Assad drove himself to a recently captured battlefront in Eastern Ghouta, a public demonstration of the regime’s gains.

The deal to surrender Harasta is the first by Eastern Ghouta rebels and began with a prisoner swap

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 trekking along the dirt road past armed soldiers.

Some bore bundles of possessions, others carried small children or pushed prams.

Douma is the most populous area in Eastern Ghouta, and for more than a week it has been entirely surrounded by government forces. 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 back 70 per cent of the former opposition enclave.

But the Observatory said people leaving the area were doing so under an agreement between the group and Russia, the government’s closest ally.

Syrian and Russia have both accused rebels in Eastern Ghouta of preventing civilians from leaving the area.

The ferocity of the Syrian army’s offensive in the area has prompted western condemnation and urgent pleas from United Nations humanitarian agencies for a ceasefire.

For the Harasta rebels, the journey to Idlib is one already well trodden by insurgents from other areas surrendered to Mr Assad.

The north-west 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.