Syrian rebels flee second pocket of eastern Ghouta

Close to 900 people bussed out of southernmost of three eastern Ghouta pockets

Hundreds of Syrian rebels and civilians have been bussed out of a second pocket of besieged eastern Ghouta.

Rebels agreed to leave several towns and villages in the area near the Syrian capital of Damascus on Sunday following years of siege and weeks of heavy bombardment.

Close to 900 people were evacuated from the southernmost of three eastern Ghouta pockets, according to state television, following some 1,000 fighters, family members, and other civilians who departed late Saturday, as reported by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Syrian army says it has now reclaimed 70 per cent of the district’s rebel-held towns and farms, carving up the area into three pockets.

Fighters dressed in fatigues hid their faces from the news cameras on the road as a fleet of buses departed on Sunday, while children peered out of the windows.

The evacuation is similar to others which have seen rebels surrender swathes of territory around the capital and other major cities after years of siege and bombardment at the hands of President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

They have been helpless against the government’s overwhelming artillery and air power, boosted with support from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Russia’s air force.

Rebels began evacuating another pocket of eastern Ghouta on Thursday.

Some 7,000 people left the town of Harasta, bound for the rebel-held Idlib province in northern Syria.

Syrian people walk down a street past destroyed buildings as civilians and rebels prepare to evacuate the town of Ain Tarma in the eastern Ghouta region near Damascus, on March 25, 2018 (AFP/Getty Images)

The Syrian Government is giving rebels and male residents the choice of laying down their weapons and signing up for military conscription, or leaving with their families to rebel-held territories elsewhere in the country.

Tens of thousands of people across Syria have decided to leave with their families instead of serving in the army or risking arrest by the state’s security services.

Critics say the evacuations amount to forced displacement and that the brutal siege tactics that have deprived hundreds of thousands of civilians of food and medicine, and subjected them to years of violence, are being rewarded.

The UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross have refused to facilitate the eastern Ghouta evacuations.

Close to 11 million people have been forced from their homes by the violence that has swept through the country since the government began cracking down on Arab Spring protests in 2011.

The government has restored its authority in most of the major population centers across the country, but there are few indications that refugees and the internally displaced are returning to their homes in large numbers.

Many of the cities and towns once held by the opposition have been razed by government forces, and resources and funding for reconstruction are scarce.

Associated Press