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| Syria: More than 11,000 people flee Eastern Ghouta as government forces step up assault on rebel enclave | Syria: More than 11,000 people flee Eastern Ghouta as government forces step up assault on rebel enclave |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| More than 11,000 people have left Syria’s besieged Eastern Ghouta as government forces step up an offensive on the rebel enclave, officials say. | More than 11,000 people have left Syria’s besieged Eastern Ghouta as government forces step up an offensive on the rebel enclave, officials say. |
| Major genral Vladimir Zolotukhin was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying that some 3,000 people have been leaving every hour through a government-run humanitarian corridor monitored by the Russian military. | Major genral Vladimir Zolotukhin was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying that some 3,000 people have been leaving every hour through a government-run humanitarian corridor monitored by the Russian military. |
| Mr Zolotukhin is spokesman for the Russian centre for reconciliation of the warring parties in Syria. | Mr Zolotukhin is spokesman for the Russian centre for reconciliation of the warring parties in Syria. |
| Syrian opposition activists are reporting that dozens of people were killed and scores wounded when an air strike hit a rebel-held town east of the capital Damascus. | |
| The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 30 people were killed in Saturday’s air strike on Zamalka that hit a group of people who were trying to flee into government-controlled areas. | |
| The opposition’s Syrian Civil Defense said the air strike killed dozens and wounded scores, adding that paramedics are trying to help people. | |
| Syrian state TV aired live footage showing hundreds of men, women and children carrying their belongings and marching from the town of Hamouria that was recently captured by Syrian troops. | |
| Under cover of allied Russian air power, Syrian government forces have been on a crushing offensive for three weeks on Eastern Ghouta. | Under cover of allied Russian air power, Syrian government forces have been on a crushing offensive for three weeks on Eastern Ghouta. |
| Meanwhile, Turkey’s military has rejected allegations it bombed a hospital in Afrin in north-western Syria, where it’s engaged in an offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters. | |
| The military tweeted aerial footage and photographs of the town’s general hospital from Saturday morning, showing it was intact. The army said in a statement the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units or YPG were trying to create a “negative perception” of the Turkish military. | |
| On Friday, YPG official Redur Khalil and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported an air strike on the hospital. The observatory said 16 people were killed in the hospital including two pregnant women. | |
| Turkey launched an offensive against the YPG on 20 January to clear Afrin. The country considers the YPG a terror group and a wing of a Kurdish insurgency operating within its own border. | |
| The weeks-long violence has left more than 1,300 civilians dead and 5,000 wounded. | The weeks-long violence has left more than 1,300 civilians dead and 5,000 wounded. |
| AP | AP |