The Largest Caravan of Militants and Civilians Exits Eastern Ghouta, Syria

Thousands more left Eastern Ghouta on Tuesday, April 7, heading towards areas controlled by Syrian rebels near the Turkish border. This is the third group to exit following an agreement mediated by Russia for the surrender of this rebel-held area on the outskirts of Damascus. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that about 7,000 people, most of them fighters and their families, boarded 100 buses early on Tuesday to leave Eastern Ghouta, with more buses arriving for subsequent evacuations. Rebels in Eastern Ghouta accepted to leave after failing to withstand the Syrian army's offensive and agreed to move to rebel-controlled areas in Idlib. The evacuation of fighters and their families began on Thursday. This is considered the largest defeat for the rebels since their retreat from Eastern Aleppo in 2016 and demonstrates the superiority of government forces in the seven-year civil war in Syria. A 24-year-old fighter from the rebel group Faylaq al-Rahman, preparing to leave Eastern Ghouta with his wife and four children, said, 'We had two choices, either to go to Idlib or to make peace with the government. Making peace with the government, with the criminals who bombed us alongside Russia, is very difficult.' The rebels leaving the area on Tuesday are from the Faylaq al-Rahman group, stationed around the cities of Arbin, Ain Terma, and Zamalka. The only area in Eastern Ghouta still under rebel control is the city of Douma. The United Nations has expressed serious concern about the situation of 70,000 to 78,000 people trapped in this city. The rebel group Jaysh al-Islam, which controls Douma, is negotiating with Russia, but these talks have not yet yielded results. Syrian government forces, supported by Iran and Russia, have previously forced rebels to abandon their controlled areas and move to Idlib. Regime opponents describe this policy as 'demographic change' aimed at driving opponents out of Syria's main cities. Syrian state television showed the movement of the convoy of buses carrying rebels in a report from the outskirts of Arbin. A reporter from the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar TV network stated that the evacuation process for tens of thousands who accepted to leave Arbin, Ain Terma, and Zamalka would take several days. The Russian news agency TASS reported that over 13,000 rebels have exited Eastern Ghouta in the past three days. Tens of thousands of residents of Eastern Ghouta have fled to government-controlled areas this month. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs states that since the balance of power shifted in Eastern Ghouta on March 9, more than 80,000 people have left the area. This agency reported, 'The refugees are forced to go to temporary shelters designated for them and are not allowed to leave these places until their backgrounds are checked by the government.' During its offensive, which began on February 18, Syrian government forces divided Eastern Ghouta into three sections, and according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, over 1,600 people were killed during this operation. The Syrian government claims that this operation has ensured the security of Damascus against rebel shelling, which previously targeted various parts of the city, including the old city of Damascus. Regime opponents still control areas in the northwest of the country, as well as regions in the south near the borders with Jordan and Israel, and several besieged areas around Damascus, Homs, and Hama.