AL ASSAD CLOSES IN ON EASTERN GHOUTA AS REBELS LEAVE
▶ Opposition fighters accept deals to quit Damascus enclave for Idlib
Syrian rebels and civilians yesterday waited several hours to be removed from the penultimate opposition-held pocket of Eastern Ghouta.
Rebel fighters have left one pocket of Eastern Ghouta and reached a deal to quit another as the government drew closer to retaking full control of the enclave after a battle of more than a month.
A Russian-backed assault since February 18 on the last opposition bastion near Damascus cut rebel territory into three shrinking pockets, each held by different factions.
The government of President Bashar Al Assad and its ally Russia have implemented a “leave or die” strategy with air strikes on rebel-held areas as they seek to end six years of opposition control.
State television said the town of Harasta had “been emptied of terrorists” after a deal where fighters from Islamist group Ahrar Al Sham and their families were taken by bus to north-western Idlib province, still in the hands of the rebels.
It is Syrian government policy to refer to rebel groups as terrorists.
The evacuation extended regime control to more than 90 per cent of bombed-out Ghouta, where rebels have clung on through years of government siege, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Mr Al Assad’s forces look set to expand their control soon over another key area after Islamist group, Faylaq Al Rahman, struck a deal to leave starting at 7am yesterday.
The agreement will involve clearing a southern stretch of territory that includes the towns of Zamalka, Arbin and Ain Tarma. Talks are under way over the third and final pocket, around Ghouta’s main town of Douma.
The withdrawal deal came after Russian air strikes using incendiary munitions hit the town of Arbin on Thursday, killing 37 civilians, the Britain-based war monitor said. AFP reporters saw similar munitions fall on Douma.
But Russia denied it was carrying out such strikes.
Each one of the three pockets has come under intense bombardment, forcing the rebels who control them to sue for an exit in a tactic commonly used by Mr Al Assad’s forces in Syria’s seven-year war.
The Observatory says that more than 1,600 civilians have been killed in just more than a month.
Harasta’s evacuation, which began on Thursday, came as part of a deal negotiated by Russia. Syrian state media reported that more than 4,500 people, including more than 1,400, fighters left.
Fighters and civilians on Friday crowded on to a fleet of 50 buses in a buffer zone outside their former bastion before beginning the journey to Idlib.
The head of the rebel-controlled local council in Harasta, Hossam Al Beiruti, described a pitiful scene as he and other residents prepared to leav.
“They came out from under the rubble. They came out of cellars they had been buried in without food,” he told AFP.
“They emerged back to life despite their feelings of abandonment by the international community.”
The first batch of fighters to leave Ghouta arrived at a camp in Idlib province on Friday after spending the night on the edge of rebel-held territory.
“Our situation in Harasta was very tragic,” Abu Mohammed, a civilian, told AFP in the town of Maarat Al Ikhwan.
“We couldn’t live above ground because of the heavy bombardment. Some children stayed in basements for four months with no food.”
Retaking Eastern Ghouta, a semi-rural area that had escaped government control since 2012 and lies within mortar range of central Damascus, was made a priority this year after a string of regime gains.
On the government side of Harasta, an AFP correspondent said Syrian soldiers fired celebratory shots after they heard of the deal to evacuate the second pocket of the enclave.
Ahrar Al Sham had made some demands in talks before the evacuation but were forced to accept conditions.
“The one thing they got was that they were able to leave without being killed,” said Nawar Oliver, an analyst at the Turkey-based Omran Centre.
About 80 civilians were reported killed on Thursday in bombardments of the territory held by Faylaq Al Rahman be-
fore they sealed a deal for 7,000 people to leave.
“The humanitarian situation continues to be catastrophic, with no food, emergency items or medical supplies and outbreaks of disease due to civilians stuck in crowded and insalubrious basements,” Faylaq Al Rahman spokesman Wael Alwan said before the deal was struck.
“There are cases of lice and scabies,” the Turkey-based spokesman said.
Pictures from Douma, which is controlled by the Salafist rebels Jaish Al Islam, showed white streams falling from the sky in a manner consistent with incendiary munitions.
Jaish Al Islam, too, opened negotiations with Russia.
The sustained offensive on Eastern Ghouta has caused widespread outrage.