Russian plane crash in Syria kills 32
MOSCOW — The Russian military has offered Syrian rebels safe passage out of eastern Ghouta, setting out a proposal to let the opposition surrender its last major stronghold near Damascus to President Bashar Al Assad.
The Russian defence ministry said rebels could leave with their families and personal weapons through a secure corridor out of eastern Ghouta, where Moscowbacked government forces have made rapid gains in a fierce assault.
The Russian proposal did not specify where the rebels would go, but the terms echo previous deals under which insurgents have ceded ground to Assad and been given safe passage to other oppositionheld territory near the Turkish border.
“The Russian Reconciliation Centre guarantees the immunity of all rebel fighters who take the decision to leave eastern Ghouta with personal weapons and together with their families,” said the defence ministry statement.
Vehicles would “be provided, and the entire route will be guarded”, it added.
Hundreds of civilians have been killed in the besieged enclave of satellite towns and rural areas on the outskirts of Damascus in one of the fiercest bombing campaigns of the seven-year-old civil war.
The United Nations believes 400,000 people are trapped inside the enclave where food and medical supplies were already running out before the assault began with intense air strikes two weeks ago.
On Tuesday, fresh air strikes and clashes shook Eastern Ghouta after desperately needed aid deliveries were cut short by fighting.
Government troops have advanced rapidly across farmland in Eastern Ghouta in the past week, a monitor says, and as of early Tuesday controlled 40 per cent of the enclave, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Essential aid deliveries to tens of thousands of besieged civilians were cut short on Monday as the regime pounded the region. At least nine civilians were killed in air strikes on the town of Jisreen early on Tuesday, the Britain-based Observatory said.