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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Damascus’s ‘leave or die’ tactics force Syrians to flee rebel enclave |
| 2018-03-27 |
| [DAWN] Weeping Syrians boarded buses to leave a ravaged pocket of eastern Ghouta on Sunday, in a new wave of evacuations to clear another part of the former rebel bastion. Five weeks since the Syrian government launched an all-out assault on Ghouta, it holds more than 90 percent of the onetime opposition stronghold on the edge of Damascus. To help it capture the rest, key government backer Russia has mediated talks with various rebel groups to negotiate withdrawals from the three remaining pockets. One area was emptied under such a deal in recent days and evacuations began late on Saturday for a second part, held by the Islamist Faylaq al Rahman rebel faction. That agreement is set to see some 7,000 rebels and civilians bussed from the towns of Arbin and Zamalka and the district of Jobar to the rebel-dominated province of Idlib in northwestern Syria. After hours of delay, around 980 of them quit Ghouta on Saturday night aboard 17 buses and several ambulances. They arrived in part of Hama province near the border with Idlib on Sunday morning. Devastated Syrian civilians and rebel fighters dressed in black gathered in the early morning in the main streets of Arbin. They carried duffel bags and dragged suitcases stuffed to the brim as they shuffled past ruined buildings. By mid-morning, around 20 empty buses and ambulances had entered the town, parking at a large roundabout. Fighters and civilians began to board, bidding tearful goodbyes to their home towns before they headed to opposition territory further north. |
| Posted by:Fred |