Syrian opposition leave key town in eastern Ghouta

Some 1,500 militants and 6,000 of their family members have begun evacuating the town of Harasta in Syria's eastern Ghouta on Thursday under an evacuation deal, a military media unit run by the regime's ally Hezbollah said.

It added that they are being transported to opposition-held Idlib province in northwest Syria and are travelling there in two batches. 

It came after the opposition sources and officials and a military media unit run by Hezbollah said on Wednesday that the opposition will evacuate a besieged town in eastern Ghouta, the first such deal in the last opposition bastion near the capital.

A spokesman for Ahrar al Sham, which controls the town, said they would go ahead nonetheless.

TRT World's Caitlin McGee has more.

Evacuation deal

Militants from Ahrar al Sham agreed to lay down arms in return for safe passage to opposition-held northwestern Syria and a regime pardon for people who wished to stay, the opposition sources said.

Russia's Defence Ministry said on Wednesday it had opened a new "humanitarian corridor" near Harasta but did not indicate whether this would be part of any opposition pullout deal.

The deal, announced on Wednesday and brokered by regime ally Russia, could mark a major step forward in regime efforts to secure the nearby capital Damascus.

The deal is modelled after others that have had militants surrender swathes of territory around the capital and other major cities to the regime. The UN and human rights groups have condemned such arrangements as "forced displacement."

Evacuation of wounded

The Harasta evacuation will begin with injured civilians, said one official familiar with talks.

A pro-regime commander confirmed there was a deal between the Russians and Ahrar al Sham. Other civilians and militants would be evacuated to opposition-held Idlib in northwest Syria in coming days, the commander said.

A local official in the opposition-run Harasta council was quoted by opposition news outlets as saying a deal had been reached but did not say when it would be implemented.

More than 100 civilians were killed in the last two days of air strikes in eastern Ghouta with most of the raids on Douma city, the largest population centre where more than 150,000 people still live.

Militants and residents say napalm and incendiary weapons, which Damascus and Moscow deny using, were dropped on several civilian areas to force militants to surrender.

Securing Harasta, near the closed Damascus-Homs highway, will allow the regime to make further gains in the remaining parts of the enclave in opposition hands.

Civilians flood out of Douma

Meanwhile, large numbers of Syrian civilians were leaving the opposition-held eastern Ghouta town of Douma early on Thursday, a war monitor said, and a Russian video feed showed groups bearing children and luggage crossing into regime territory.

A webcam on the Russian Defence Ministry website showed what it said was live footage from the Al Wafideen crossing point between opposition-held Douma and regime areas.

Over a period of several minutes, it showed dozens of people in small groups coming around a corner and trekking along the dirt road past armed soldiers.

Some carried large bundles of their possessions, others carried small children or pushed prams. Behind were fields and trees. At one point in the road a man could be seen in a red shirt with the logo of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.

Struggle to control 

The Syrian regime has recaptured 70 percent of the territory that was under opposition control in eastern Ghouta, and after weeks of bombardment residents are fleeing by the thousands.

Beside Harasta, the militants still hold two other pockets in the enclave outside Damascus – the major town of Douma and an area to the south that includes the towns of Jobar, Ein Terma and Arbin.

The regime assault, backed by Russian fighter jets, began last month. It has killed more than 1,500 people as air strikes pounded residential areas where thousands had sheltered in basements across the densely-populated enclave, according to a monitor.

Syrian regime leader Bashar al Assad is determined to end what he calls a terrorist threat near his seat of power. The regime accuses militants of bombarding the capital's suburbs as revenge for the assault on eastern Ghouta, though the militants deny targeting civilians.

Civilian casualties

On Tuesday, a rocket struck a busy market in a regime-held area close to eastern Ghouta, killing at least 35 people, regime-linked media said. 

The Syrian regime on Wednesday said Saudi Arabia and Qatar were behind the opposition groups responsible. Both countries have backed opposition groups during the war.

The Syrian regime added that its allies have for years employed siege and bombardment tactics to force militants to surrender, helping Assad recover Aleppo, Homs and other areas.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday condemned the assault on eastern Ghouta and accused Assad's ally Russia of "just watching" the events unfold.

'Catastrophic conditions' 

"They bomb us to force us to leave our homes and everything behind us and say imminent death faces those who stay," Iyad Abdul Aziz, head of the local council in Douma, told Reuters.

He said an air strike on Sunday hit a warehouse that stocked aid delivered earlier this month, worsening the plight of civilians, and that Douma faced "catastrophic conditions."

The Harasta deal may add pressure on the two main militant groups - Failaq al Rahman in the southern pocket and Jaish al Islam in Douma - to also reach understandings.

They have so far refused to leave the enclave, but the most likely outcome was still their transfer to opposition-held areas in northern and southern Syria, a opposition official said.

Idlib, in northwestern Syria, is subject to regime air raids. Air strikes, likely to be Russian, on Thursday killed 22 civilians in a market in the northwestern province of Idlib, , war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.

On Wednesday, one strike killed 20 people there including 16 children, the war monitor, SOHR said.

Defeat in eastern Ghouta would mark the worst setback for the anti-Assad rebellion since the opposition was driven from eastern Aleppo in late 2016 after a similar campaign of siege, bombing, ground assault and the promise of safe passage out.