Death and exodus

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Thousands of terrified Syrian civilians flee raging assaults on two fronts.

adra:

Syrian civilians in the last rebel-held pockets of besieged eastern Ghouta have been urged to flee as Russia-backed regime forces storm into the beleaguered area near Damascus, with intense airstrikes killing dozens and causing thousands more to evacuate.

Airstrikes on eastern Ghouta killed at least 30 civilians yesterday, a monitor said, almost a month into a blistering Russia-backed regime assault on the Syrian rebel enclave outside Damascus.

The Britain- based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights could not say who carried out the strikes on the town of Zamalka in a southern pocket of the enclave.

Regime forces have retaken 70% of the last rebel bastion on the outskirts of the capital since Feb 18, carving it up into three shrinking pockets held by different rebels.

The regime assault has killed more than 1,390 civilians in the enclave, according to the Observatory, which relies on a network of sources on the ground.

The offensive has pushed thousands more to flee their homes into government-controlled areas.

Yesterday morning, “around 10,000 civilians streamed out of the rebel enclave into regime-held areas”, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

The Syrian army in a message broadcast on state television urged all residents to use “corridors” it had established to leave the enclave, saying it had recaptured 70% of rebel territory.

On the edge of Ghouta, a sprawling semi-rural area within mortar range of central Damascus, more than 2,400 civilians streamed out of destroyed towns, carrying scant belongings in bags and bundles.

Crowds crammed into a government centre on the edge of eastern Ghouta on Friday, unsure what the next step would be after walking straight into the arms of the forces that have relentlessly pounded their homes for weeks.

“We were afraid of leaving – they had told us the army would arrest us,” said 35-year-old Abu Khaled, who used to run a retail clothing shop in Ghouta. “We reached the army and didn’t find that, but now we’re basically living in a camp.”

Syria’s envoy to the UN Bashar al-Jaafari said 40,000 people fled Ghouta on Thursday, and the sudden exodus appeared to have caught the government flat-footed.

Long lines formed outside public bathrooms, and displaced families complained of lack of access to water or mattresses.

— AFP Mass exodus: Syrian civilians, evacuated from rebel-held areas in eastern Ghouta, gathering at a school in the regime-controlled Hosh Nasri on the northeastern outskirts of the capital Damascus.