Battered Syrian rebels evacuated from enclave in Eastern Ghouta

SYRIAN rebels and their families began leaving a key enclave within Eastern Ghouta yesterday after agreeing with the government to give up their fight for the stronghold.

Around 1,600 militia men from the Ahrar al-sham Islamist group and 6,000 relatives were expected to have been evacuated by this morning, in the first such deal between the two sides.

Buses transported the men, women and children out of the enclave through government territory and on to opposition-held Idlib province in the northwest of the country.

Idilb, close to the Turkish border, is the rebels’ largest remaining redoubt and where thousands have been sent by the regime under so-called reconciliation deals.

A spokesman for Ahrar al-sham, which had controlled the enclave of Harasta, told The Daily Telegraph that the fighters were allowed to leave with their weapons, and the roughly 20,000 civilians who wished to remain in the city were given guarantees of safety from the regime and Russia.

He said rebels and the government also exchanged 18 prisoners ahead of the evacuation.

The deal, brokered by government allies Russia and Hizbollah, the Lebanese militia, was agreed after pleas from civilians, who have spent weeks being bombarded by air strikes and chemical attacks. Critics say it is a formula for displacement that legitimises the government’s brutal siege tactics that have deprived hundreds of thousands of civilians of food and medicines during a half-decade of violence.

A blistering Russia-backed regime offensive on Eastern Ghouta since Feb 18 has retaken 80 per cent of the region, on the outskirts of Damascus.

The assault has sparked a tide of displacement in the Damascus suburbs as civilians try to escape the violence.

Some have moved deeper into the rebel-held enclave, while some 50,000 others have crossed the front lines into the hands of government authorities.

The Ahrar al-sham spokesman said 30,000 of those who had fled Ghouta in recent weeks were being held in four camps around Damascus. “They’re almost like prisons because no one can move freely inside,” he said. “You also can’t enter or leave the camps.”

There were also reports of some men of fighting age, particularly defectors from the Syrian army who joined the opposition, being conscripted to fight for the government.

The deal will put pressure on rebel groups in the two other besieged areas of Eastern Ghouta to follow suit.

Jaish al-islam, which holds Douma, the biggest and most populated town still held by the rebels, has said it is determined to fight on.