Civilians flee Syrian fighting on two fronts

BEIRUT — Thousands of civilians 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, as government forces pushed rebels out of the town with a punishing aerial and ground campaign, according to state-run Syrian television and a war monitoring group.

A shepherd took 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 7th anniversary 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, which controls Afrin.

“We won’t leave until our job is done,” he said. Ankara says the group is connected to a Kurdish insurgency inside its own borders and sees the militia as a national security threat.

Th e exodus f rom 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 Observatory put the number of those who had left eastern Ghouta at more than 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. They are running out of room to flee as government forces close in on the space.

“People are carrying their stuff and just walking out of Hamouriya,” said a woman reached by a messaging service. She asked for anonymity out of fear for her safety.

“People are going crazy, we don’t know what awaits us,” she said.

Separately, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the U.N. delivered aid for over 26,000 people to another location in eastern Ghouta, the town of Douma, the Red Cross committee said.

Syrian Civil Defense, or the White Helmets as they are known, said its first responders have been unable to reach the wounded in several other towns in eastern Ghouta because of the intensity of the government’s assault. It said one of its rescue workers was killed in an airstrike on the town of Hazeh.

“They are burning Ghouta to the ground,” said Anas al-Dimashqi, a media activist and resident of Kafr Batna, a town also targeted in airstrikes Thursday.

Dimashqi, the White Helmets and the Observatory reported that government and Russian aircraft were using napalmlike incendiary weapons to spread fires in the towns.

Government and Russian forces also targeted a column of civilians trying to flee another town, Hamouria, early Thursday, according to the activists and the Observatory. At least 26 civilians were killed in Hamouria on Wednesday, the Observatory said earlier.

The Syrian government, backed by its allies Iran and Russia, is determined to retake control of the once-agricultural region just outside of Damascus, after seven years of war and bloodletting that has killed about 450,000 people and displaced millions.