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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. Air strikes pounded a rebel pocket in Eastern Ghouta near the capital Damascus, rescuers and a war monitor said.
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. In the northern Afrin region, people fled other frontlines closing in on their homes as Turkish troops and allied rebels struck the main town, Syrian Kurdish forces and the monitor said.
The opposition’s Syrian Civil Defense said the air strike killed dozens and wounded scores, adding that paramedics are trying to help people. More than 150,000 people have left the town in the last few days, according to a senior Kurdish official and the monitor.
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. The two offensives, one backed by Russia and the other led by Turkey, have shown how Syrian factions and their foreign allies are aggressively reshaping the map after the defeat of Isis's self-proclaimed caliphate last year.
Under cover of allied Russian air power, Syrian government forces have been on a crushing offensive for three weeks on Eastern Ghouta. Syria’s conflict marked seven years this week, having killed hundreds of thousands and displaced at least 11 million more, including nearly six million who have fled abroad in one of the worst refugee crises of modern times.
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 Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said air strikes on the rebel pocket in Eastern Ghouta killed 30 people gathering to leave for government territory on Saturday.
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. The UK-based war monitoring group said the strikes on Zamalka town also injured dozens. There was no immediate comment from Damascus, which says it only targets armed militants.
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. The Turkish military denied on Saturday that it had struck a hospital in Afrin, where it has waged an offensive since January against the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia that controls the region.
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 YPG and the observatory said a Turkish air strike on Afrin town’s main hospital had killed 16 people the night before.
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 and Reuters