Rebels, Russia strike a deal to evacuate wounded from Douma

AMMAN /Reuters

Negotiators in the last rebel-held bastion in Syria’s eastern Ghouta reached a deal with the Russian side to evacuate the wounded from Douma to rebel-held northern Syria, local sources familiar with the deal said. The agreement was reached by the negotiating committee that comprises both civic leaders and representatives of Jaish al Islam, the rebel faction in control of Douma, the sources said.
The committee has been negotiating a deal to spare the city a military assault by the Syrian army and its allies who encircle it. They have threatened to storm the city if rebels do not agree to surrender the last patch in the enclave in return for safe passage to insurgent-held territory in northwestern Syria.
Syrian rebels had begun pulling out of several towns in their former enclave of eastern Ghouta, surrendering them to the government and leaving the besieged city of Douma as their last bastion there.
It came after a month-long assault that devastated the already battered eastern Ghouta, an area of farmland and towns that was one of the first centres of the uprising in 2011 and the last major rebel stronghold near the capital Damascus.
About 7,000 people — fighters along with family members and other civilians who do not wish to come back under Assad’s rule — were to leave the towns of Zamalka, Arbin, Ein Terma and Jobar, rebels and state media said.
They went to Idlib province in the northwest — the destination for many such “evacuations” after sieges and ground offensives forced numerous rebel enclaves to surrender in the past two years.
A Russian military webcam at the al-Wafideen crossing point near Douma last week showed small groups of civilians continuing to flee the danger of further bombardment into government territory, carrying children and sacks of
belongings.