‘Nothing left’ in Eastern Ghouta as Syrian rebels finally disperse

“THERE’S no right choice,” said the doctor in Douma, the last remaining pocket of rebel-held Eastern Ghouta. “There is danger with staying and danger with leaving.”

Dr Bushra had spent the past 48 hours treating victims of Saturday’s chemical attack at a hospital in Douma, but now faces a tough decision.

The rebels that had controlled the Syrian town agreed to a Russian-brokered evacuation deal and she is left to decide whether to stay and risk living under the government or leave on buses heading for other oppositionheld areas.

“I’m in a bad psychological state,” Dr Bushra, who did not wish to give her full name for fear of reprisal, said via text message. “I’m collapsed and tired, I can’t stop as there’s no one else left to cover me.

“I don’t know what to do, maybe I will stay, I don’t know anything else.”

Some of Douma’s estimated 80,000 residents began evacuating the enclave yesterday, after a suspended chlorine bomb pushed the defiant rebels back to the negotiating table.

Fighters in Jaish al-islam had been in disagreement over whether to give up the opposition’s most important stronghold, with hardliners wanting to stay and fight.

But hours after the attack, Jaish alislam agreed to surrender, having come under intense pressure from civilians, who have endured five years of siege and months of intense aerial bombardment and could take no more.

Under the terms of the deal, those who choose to stay behind will reconcile with the Bashar al-assad regime, and will not be called upon to do mandatory military service for six months.

Russian military police are supposed to deploy in Douma to act as a guarantor of the agreement.

In return, the rebels agreed safe passage for 200 pro-government hostages, who were shown on state television in tearful embraces with loved ones. More than 100 buses entered the town on Sunday night to transport the fighters and their families to Jarablus, a town under the shared control of rebels and Turkey.

Moscow said all military operations around Douma had now halted and that the buses had arrived in the town to help start ferrying out some 8,000 fighters and 40,000 of their family members. “There’s nothing left for civilians and fighters,” said Haitham Bakkar, an opposition activist inside the town.

The deal for Douma follows a pattern of forced displacement around the capital, Damascus, and other major Syrian cities as the government reasserts its control after seven years of war.

Tens of thousands have already been bused to Idlib, a opposition-held city in the north that has become something of a holding pen for jihadist rebels.

Having rebels within striking range of the capital had challenged the president’s legitimacy and left the seat of power vulnerable to attack.