In Syria, thousands flee besieged enclaves
Areas hit by weeks of shelling by Syrian and Turkish forces.
Thousands of civil-BEIRUT — ians streamed out of two besieged enclaves on opposite sides of Syria on Thursday, crossing on foot and in pickups and tractors to safety after suffering weeks of shelling and bombardment by Turkish and Syrian government forces.
At least 10,000 men, women and children emerged from Hamouria and nearby opposition towns near the Syrian capital, carrying their belongings in suitcases and bags, as government forces pushed rebels out of the town with a punishing aerial and ground campaign, according to staterun Syrian television and a war monitoring group.
A shepherd brought his herd of sheep and cattle with him through the corridor set up by government forces.
Thousands more fled Afrin, near the Turkish border, after Turkish forces tightened their siege around the Kurdish-run town, according to a pro-government station and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.
Together, the two exoduses on the seventh anni- versary of the country’s civil war underscore the intractability of a conflict that has invited world powers to stake out their spheres of influence in the fragmented country.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, addressing the European Parliament on Thursday, said he would not halt his campaign against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, known as the YPG, which controls Afrin.
“We won’t leave until our job is done,” he said. Ankara says the YPG is connected to a Kurdish insurgency inside its own borders and sees the militia as a national security threat.
The exodus from Hamouria was the largest yet seen from the greater, rebel-held eastern Ghouta enclave at the outskirts of Damascus since the government backed by Russian air power launched its assault on the region more than three weeks ago. More than 1,200 civilians have been killed in airstrikes and rocket fire.
State-run Al-Ihkbariya said civilians would be taken to a center for identification and relief. The pro-government Al-Mayadeen TV showed buses waiting to pick up those leaving.
Men interviewed by state TV reporters heaped praise on the army and President Bashar Assad and said armed groups had humiliated them and held them against their will in eastern Ghouta. The government and rebels have traded accusations over who is blocking civilians from leaving.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group put the number of those who had left eastern Ghouta at over 12,000. It also said government forces targeted a column of civilians fleeing Hamouria before dawn Thursday, wounding several people, and that 26 people were killed in government strikes on the town Wednesday.
The U.N. estimates that close to 400,000 people are trapped inside the government’s siege of eastern Ghouta.