Assad regime said to cut off largest town in rebel-held Ghouta

Keen to secure Damascus, Russia-backed government troops continue to close in on enclave, killing nearly 1,000 civilians in under a month

Syrian troops on Saturday cut off the largest town in Eastern Ghouta from the rest of the rebel-held enclave which is now split in three, a monitor said.

The army captured a road linking the town of Douma with Harasta further west, and also captured the town of Misraba, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

“Regime forces have therefore divided Eastern Ghouta into three parts — Douma and its surroundings, Harasta in the west, and the rest of the towns further south,” the Britain-based war monitor said.

An AFP correspondent inside Douma said shelling and air strikes were rocking the town on Saturday.

Besieged by government forces since 2013, Ghouta is the last remaining rebel-held area near the capital.

Keen to secure Damascus, government troops and allied militias have been closing in on the enclave since February 18 and have overrun more than half of it.

Syrian civil defense volunteers carry away a victim’s body who died during the collapse of a building following reported regime bombardment in Haza, in the besieged Eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascus, on February 26, 2018. (AFP Photo/Abdulmonam Essa)

Nearly 950 civilians have been killed since Russia-backed government forces launched a blistering assault on the last opposition bastion near Damascus on February 18.

Eastern Ghouta’s 400,000 inhabitants have lived under government siege since 2013 and the enclave — more than half of which has over the past three weeks been retaken by regime forces — is home to a myriad of armed groups.

Apart from Islamist groups such as Jaish al-Islam, jihadists from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), who are mostly linked to Al-Qaeda, are also deployed there.

Syrian state television aired footage of a single bus carrying 13 “fighters” and family members out of the enclave through Al-Wafideen checkpoint, without giving their affiliation.

Some appeared to be young, while others wore hoodies to cover their heads and faces.

The limited operation came as the powerful Jaish al-Islam said HTS fighters would be evacuated to the northern province of Idlib, in an arrangement struck following consultations with the United Nations and other international players.

“It has been agreed that the first group of HTS members be released from the prisons of Jaish al-Islam … (and) moved to Idlib at their request,” Jaish al-Islam said.

HTS is the main force in Idlib, in Syria’s northwest and the last province outside regime control.