Thousands More Leave Syria's Ghouta in Withdrawal Deal

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Some 7,000 people departed eastern Ghouta for Syrian rebel-held territory near the Turkish border on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, under an agreement arranged by Russia to surrender the enclave to the Syrian government.

The Observatory said the convoy of around 100 buses left in the early hours of Tuesday towards northern Syria. The evacuees included rebel fighters, their families, and other civilians, it said.

Five weeks since government troops launched a ferocious offensive on Ghouta, they hold more than 90 percent of the long-besieged opposition stronghold on the doorstep of Damascus.

The area has been ravaged by heavy bombardment and emptied by an exodus of tens of thousands of residents and negotiated withdrawals of rebels.

A convoy of more than 5,400 fighters and civilians left a pocket of territory held by rebel group Faylaq Al Rahman late on Sunday and reached northwest Syria the following day.

It was the single largest one-day evacuation yet from Eastern Ghouta, after nearly 1,000 people were bussed out from the same area on Saturday.

Eastern Ghouta lies within mortar range of Damascus, and rebels there had threatened to seize the capital from President Bashar Al Assad.

The regime responded with a crippling half-decade siege on the suburb's 400,000 residents, sealing off access to food, medicine and other goods.

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Source(s): AFP ,Reuters