Syrian government forces have retaken the town of Douma, thus gaining full control of the former rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta, according to a Russian military official.

Syrian troops pushed the last rebel fighters out of Douma on Thursday, Major-General Yury Yevtushenko, head of Russia's Centre for Syrian Reconciliation, told local news media.

"Today, a landmark event in the history of the Syrian Arab Republic took place," he was quoted as saying by the Russian agency Sputnik.

"The state flag flown over a building … in the city of Douma marked the regained control over this settlement, and consequently over entire Eastern Ghouta."

There has been no official statement from the Syrian government so far.

Russian military police have been deployed on the ground to take over Douma's security, Russian news agency RIA reported.

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The developments came after Jaish al-Islam, the last remaining rebel group in Eastern Ghouta, reached a deal with Russia on Sunday under which its fighters would abandon Douma and head for an opposition-held area in northern Syria.

The agreement includes a ceasefire and the evacuation of fighters and civilians from the area.

Under the deal, only the Russian military police, and not the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, are allowed to enter Douma after the evacuation.

Crossing points will be opened to commercial movement as soon as Russian military police enter the city.

The deal also ensures the release of all pro-government prisoners held in Douma.

The agreement came a day after a suspected chemical attack killed at least 80 people and affected hundreds of other Douma residents.

Eastern Ghouta has been under government siege since 2013 as part of its so-called "siege and starvation" tactics.

Assad's next steps

Al Jazeera's Zena Khodr, reporting from Beirut in neighbouring Lebanon, said: "This is no doubt a victory for the pro-government alliance because Eastern Ghouta has long been a thorn in the side of the government, right at the doorstep of the capital, Damascus, the government's seat of power."

Pro-regime media outlets are reporting that government forces are already planning their next steps, she said.

"There are territories and districts that are under the control of ISIL (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group), and what we understand is that the pro-government alliance is going to focus on those districts to clear them from ISIL fighters in order to consolidate control of the capital and to put the government in a very comfortable position with help from its allies, Russia and Iran."





Douma and Eastern Ghouta have come under heavy ground and aerial bombardment by government forces in recent weeks.

The suspected chemical attack in Douma was the largest of its kind in Syria since last April, drawing international outrage and prompting a war of words between the US and Russia.

Syria's government and Russia have denied the attack took place, but rescuers and medics have reported the deaths of dozens of people, including many women and children.

Three rival draft resolutions to investigate suspected chemical-weapons attacks in Syria failed to pass in the UN Security Council on Tuesday.

However, the OPCW will go head with its fact-finding mission to Douma to investigate the alleged use of chemical weapons.

Al Jazeera's Rory Challand, reporting from Moscow, said the government takeover of Douma "will have an impact on the OPCW fact-finding mission".

"The region is now directly under the control of Russian military police and the Syrian government," he said.

"That might have an impact on what they find on the ground when they look for evidence of what happened last weekend." </s> BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian government appeared close to ending rebel resistance in eastern Ghouta as civilians streamed from one of its besieged, bomb-battered towns and insurgents prepared to surrender another on Thursday.

The army assault on eastern Ghouta, an area of towns and farmland just outside Damascus, has been one of the most intense in Syria’s seven-year-old war, killing more than 1,500 people in a relentless bombardment with war planes, shells and rockets.

Syrian state television showed lines of buses preparing to enter the town of Harasta to transport fighters and their families to opposition areas in northwestern Syria in a deal brokered by the government’s ally Russia.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said more than 4,000 people had fled the larger rebel-held town of Douma since Wednesday.

By surrendering Harasta, the Ahrar al-Sham group will leave only Douma and another rebel pocket in eastern Ghouta that includes the towns of Jobar, Ein Terma, Arbin and Zamalka.

They are all that remain of the main insurgent stronghold near the Syrian capital Damascus, the biggest prize for President Bashar al-Assad in his fight against the rebels since the recapture of Aleppo in late 2016.

On Sunday, Assad drove himself to a newly captured battlefront in eastern Ghouta, a demonstration of his growing confidence as the war against the rebels turns more decisively in his favor.

The Russian Defence Ministry website showed what it said was live footage from the al-Wafideen crossing point from Douma into government areas. Over a period of several minutes, it showed dozens of people in small groups coming around a corner and trekking along the dirt road past armed soldiers.

Some bore bundles of their possessions, others carried small children or pushed prams. Behind were fields and trees. At one point in the road a man could be seen in a red shirt with the logo of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.

Douma is the most populous area in eastern Ghouta, and for more than a week it has been entirely surrounded by the government. The Jaish al-Islam rebel group that holds the town has said it is determined to fight on after a month-long government offensive that has taken 70 percent of the former opposition enclave in eastern Ghouta.

However, the Observatory said people leaving the area were doing so under an agreement between the group and the government’s closest ally Russia.

The Syrian government and Russia have both accused rebels in eastern Ghouta of stopping civilians leaving the area. They say their assault, which the Observatory says has killed more than 1,500 people so far, is needed to end Islamist militant rule over the area’s people.

They also say it is needed to end rebel shelling of Damascus and other nearby areas. On Tuesday, a rocket struck a marketplace in a government-held town, killing dozens.

However, the ferocity of the Syrian army’s offensive in eastern Ghouta has prompted Western condemnation and urgent pleas from United Nations humanitarian agencies for a ceasefire.

Over the past week, tens of thousands of people have fled across the frontlines into government territory to escape the near relentless bombing.

For the Harasta rebels, the journey to Idlib is one already well trodden by insurgents from other areas surrendered to Assad after prolonged sieges and intense bombardments of the kind used against eastern Ghouta over the past month.

The northwestern province is the biggest remaining area under rebel control in Syria and its population has been doubled by refugees fleeing other areas including many opposition supporters.

A military media unit run by Assad’s ally Hezbollah on Wednesday said some 1,500 fighters along with 6,000 family members would depart Harasta under the agreement with the government.

On Thursday the same Hezbollah media unit said the army and Ahrar al-Sham had started to exchange prisoners as the Harasta deal got under way. </s> Syrian government forces have taken full control over the town of Douma, the last rebel stronghold in the eastern Ghouta enclave outside Damascus, Russian news agencies reported on Thursday, citing a Russian military official.

BEIRUT/MOSCOW: Syrian government forces have raised their flag over the last rebel bastion in eastern Ghouta, taking full control of the town of Douma as insurgents withdraw, Russian news agencies reported on Thursday, sealing a major victory for President Bashar al-Assad.

Eastern Ghouta had been the biggest rebel stronghold near Damascus, but insurgent groups there surrendered after a series of ferocious government assaults aided by Russia under a massive bombardment.

The Jaish al-Islam group in Douma agreed on Sunday to withdraw, hours after a suspected chemical weapons attack on the town that has raised the prospect of U.S. strikes. The Syrian government and Russia have called reports of the attack bogus.

"The raised state flag over a building in the town of Douma has heralded the control over this location and therefore over the whole of eastern Ghouta," Major-General Yuri Yevtushenko, head of the Russian Peace and Reconciliation Centre in Syria, was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.

Russian military police were deployed in Douma on Thursday in accordance with the rebel surrender deal, Russia's RIA news agency reported. Some 40,000 people, including thousands of rebels and their families, are leaving Douma for opposition areas in northern Syria under the agreement.

On Wednesday, a top official from Iran, Assad's other main ally, toured eastern Ghouta and vowed to stand by Syria in the face of "any foreign aggression".

"Syria's enemies are angry because of its military advances against terrorist groups," Ali Akbar Velayati, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's top adviser, told Iranian state TV during his visit to eastern Ghouta's bomb-shattered ruins.

On Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump said that American missiles "will be coming" to Syria as he and other Western countries weigh military action over the suspected chemical attack in Douma.

Both Syria and Russia have said reports of the attack were fabricated by rebels and rescue workers in the town and have accused the U.S. of seeking to use it as a pretext to attack the government.

Bouthaina Shaaban, a top adviser to Assad, described the army's recapture of eastern Ghouta as a "decisive point" in an interview on Wednesday, saying the rebels' defeat had pushed the West to wage "psychological war" by threatening strikes.

"Consultations are ongoing between the allies and they will not let matters progress as Washington wants," she told Lebanon's al-Mayadeen channel, referring to the alliance of Assad, Russia, Iran and the Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah.

In his tweet on Wednesday, Trump referred to Assad as a "gas killing animal". The Syrian president on Wednesday made a public appearance with a group from an international Muslim body in Damascus. </s> Thousands of Islamist fighters and their relatives left the Syrian town of Douma they once controlled as the last evacuations from Eastern Ghouta continued on Friday, a monitor said.

The fighters from the group left overnight and thousands of civilians onboard 85 buses that took them to areas of northern Syria still held by rebels.

The evacuations are part of a deal brokered by Damascus's Russian ally to re-establish regime control on Eastern Ghouta, a area just on the edge of the capital that had escaped government control since 2012.

"After midnight, 85 buses left Eastern Ghouta carrying 4,000 people, both fighters and civilians," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring organisation said.

"Over the past few days, most of the fighters have left Douma in four successive waves," the Britain-based monitor's head, Rami Abdel Rahman, said.

The group was the last in the erstwhile besieged Ghouta enclave to resist the exit proposed by Russia but an alleged chemical attack by the regime on April 7 appeared to break their will.

The government has consistently denied the attack and a delegation of experts from the OPCW chemical watchdog arrived in Damascus to investigate. They are expected to start their work tomorrow.

"The evacuation operation should wrap up before the OPCW experts enter Douma," Abdel Rahman said.

According to local medics and a statement by the World Health Organisation, more than 40 people died in the April 7 strike on Douma of symptoms consistent with the use of chemical weapons.

rebels have already handed over or destroyed their heavy weapons and Russia announced on Thursday that the entire territory that was once the Eastern Ghouta rebel enclave was now under control. </s> Syrian Army soldiers stand next to buses that carry rebels and their families who left Douma, at the entrance of the Wafideen camp in Damascus April 12, 2018. — Reuters picBEIRUT, April 13 — Thousands of Islamist fighters and their relatives left the Syrian town of Douma they once controlled as the last evacuations from Eastern Ghouta continued today, a monitor said.

The fighters from the Jaish al-Islam group left overnight with thousands of civilians on board 85 buses that took them to areas of northern Syria still held by rebels.

The evacuations are part of a deal brokered by Damascus’s Russian ally to re-establish regime control on Eastern Ghouta, a area just on the edge of the capital that had escaped government control since 2012.

“After midnight, 85 buses left Eastern Ghouta carrying 4,000 people, both fighters and civilians,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring organisation said.

“Over the past few days, most of the Jaish al-Islam fighters have left Douma in four successive waves,” the Britain-based monitor’s head, Rami Abdel Rahman, said.

The group was the last in the erstwhile besieged Ghouta enclave to resist the exit proposed by Russia but an alleged chemical attack by the regime on April 7 appeared to break their will.

The government has consistently denied the attack and a delegation of experts from the OPCW chemical watchdog arrived in Damascus to investigate.

They are expected to start their work tomorrow.

“The evacuation operation should wrap up before the OPCW experts enter Douma,” Abdel Rahman said.

According to local medics and a statement by the World Health Organisation, more than 40 people died in the April 7 strike on Douma of symptoms consistent with the use of chemical weapons.

Jaish al-Islam rebels have already handed over or destroyed their heavy weapons and Russia announced yesterday that the entire territory that was once the Eastern Ghouta rebel enclave was now under control. — AFP </s> The Syrian government moved closer to ending rebel resistance in eastern Ghouta as civilians streamed out of one of its besieged, bomb-battered towns on Thursday and insurgents prepared to surrender another.

The army assault on eastern Ghouta, an area of towns and farmland just outside Damascus, has been one of the most intense in Syria’s seven-year-old war, killing more than 1,500 people in a relentless bombardment with war planes, shells and rockets.

A witness said 15 buses had driven into the town of Harasta to transport fighters and their families to opposition areas in northwestern Syria in a deal brokered by the government’s ally Russia.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said more than 4,000 people had fled the larger rebel-held town of Douma since Wednesday, crossing over into government-held territory.

The Ahrar al-Sham group’s decision to surrender Harsata leaves only Douma and another rebel pocket in eastern Ghouta that includes the towns of Jobar, Ein Terma, Arbin and Zamalka. They are all that remain of the main insurgent stronghold near the Syrian capital Damascus, the biggest prize for President Bashar al-Assad in his fight against the rebels since the recapture of Aleppo in late 2016.

Air strikes pummelled parts of eastern Ghouta on Thursday morning, striking Arbin and Zamalka and killing 19 people, according to the observatory. An army officer interviewed on state television urged rebels who had not yet negotiated a deal to quit. “Death is coming for you if you do not surrender,” he said.

On Sunday, Mr Assad drove himself to a newly captured battlefront in eastern Ghouta, a demonstration of his seemingly unassailable position in the war that has been going his way since Russia sent its air force to help him in 2015.

The deal to surrender Harasta is the first by eastern Ghouta rebels and began on Thursday with a prisoner swap. In an interview with state television, a Syrian soldier freed by rebels wept and thanked God and the army for his release.

The Reuters witness at the crossing with Harasta said the army had removed barriers from the old frontline lying across the road into the town to allow the buses to pass.

The Russian defence ministry website showed what it said was live footage from the al-Wafideen crossing point from Douma into government areas. Over a period of several minutes, it showed dozens of people in small groups coming around a corner and trekking along the dirt road past armed soldiers.

Some bore bundles of their possessions, others carried small children or pushed prams. Behind were fields and trees. At one point in the road a man could be seen in a red shirt with the logo of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.

Douma is the most populous area in eastern Ghouta, and for more than a week it has been entirely surrounded by the government. The Jaish al-Islam rebel group that holds the town has said it is determined to fight on after a month-long government offensive that has taken 70 per cent of the former opposition enclave in eastern Ghouta.

However, the observatory said people leaving the area were doing so under an agreement between the group and Russia.

The Syrian government and Russia have both accused rebels in eastern Ghouta of stopping civilians leaving the area. They say their assault, which the observatory says has killed more than 1,500 people so far, is needed to end Islamist militant rule over the area’s people.

They also say it is needed to end rebel shelling of Damascus and other nearby areas. On Tuesday, a rocket struck a marketplace in a government-held town, killing dozens.

However, the ferocity of the Syrian army’s offensive in eastern Ghouta has prompted western condemnation and urgent pleas from United Nations humanitarian agencies for a ceasefire. Over the past week, tens of thousands of people have fled across the frontlines into government territory.

For the Harasta rebels, the journey to Idlib is one already well trodden by insurgents from other areas surrendered to Mr Assad after prolonged sieges and intense bombardments of the kind used against eastern Ghouta over the past month. – Reuters </s> (BEIRUT) — The Russian military announced on Thursday that the Syrian government is now in full control of a town on the outskirts of Damascus that was held by the rebels and that was the site of suspected chemical attack over the weekend.

There was no official announcement by Damascus, however, and no indication that Syrian government forces had entered the town of Douma on Thursday.

If confirmed, the developments would mark the last stage of the Syrian government’s takeover of the rebel-held enclave of eastern Ghouta, on Damascus’ outskirts. Douma and the region of eastern Ghouta was a significant rebel stronghold during Syria’s civil war, now in its eighth year.

Meanwhile, Syrians are bracing for a possible U.S. attack in retaliation to an alleged chemical assault that killed dozens on Saturday in Douma. The Foreign Ministry in Damascus has denounced President Donald Trump’s threat to attack the country as “reckless” and a danger to international peace and security.

The Russian Defense Ministry statement followed a chaotic day in Douma that saw rebels there open fire as opposition fighters were leaving with families under a so-called evacuation deal mediated by Russia to hand over the town to the government and end a months-long military siege.

The Defense Ministry said the situation in Douma, just east of the Syrian capital, was “normalizing.”

According to the war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Russian military is deploying to reassure the remaining civilians in Douma.

Wednesday’s gunfire broke out during the evacuation of the latest batch of civilians and rebels after pro-government supporters attempted to raise government flags over buildings in Douma and chanted in support of Syrian President Bashar Assad before the evacuation of rebel fighters was completed.

Some Russian journalists who had entered the town with a reconciliation delegation were wounded in the melee. The Observatory said more evacuations would take place on Thursday.

The evacuation deal, which brings the last opposition-held area near the capital under government control, has been fraught with difficulties.

Amid earlier disagreements, a truce collapsed last week and the Syrian government pressed ahead with its offensive.

The offensive was followed by a suspected chemical attack in Douma on Saturday that killed more than 40 people and sparked an international condemnation. The United States and allies have threatened to take military action against Syria in response to the chemical attack. Syria and Russia deny the attack took place.

The evacuation deal called for the formation of a local council to administer Douma. Thousands of civilians are staying in Douma, and some fighters are also expected to stay, on condition that they hand in their weapons. More than 13,500 Syrian rebel fighters and their families left Douma this month.

The Observatory said there are still rebel fighters inside Douma, some of them would still be evacuated to the other opposition held areas in northern Syria. </s> BEIRUT (AP) - The Latest on developments in Syria (all times local):

 

4 p.m.

 

A U.S. defense official says one of the two troops with the U.S.-led coalition who were killed in a roadside bomb attack in Syria was an American.

 

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because details had not yet been publicly released, did not give the nationality of the second military member.

 

Earlier on Friday, the U.S. military said two coalition personnel were killed and five others wounded by a roadside bomb in Syria without specifying where exactly the attack occurred.

 

The U.S. official said no additional information about the American would be immediately available.

 

___

 

12:50 p.m.

 

A Syrian rebel group based near the capital Damascus is denying reports that an agreement has been reached with the Russians to evacuate the area and move somewhere else.

 

Army of Islam military spokesman Hamza Bayraqdar tells The Associated Press that the reports are false, adding that his group's stance is to reject displacement and demographic change in the area known as eastern Ghouta.

 

Earlier on Friday, Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi of the Russian military's General Staff said in a briefing that the agreement was that the rebels and their families leave the Syrian town of Douma in eastern Ghouta.

 

The announcement came after the Syrian government on Wednesday issued a three-day ultimatum to the Army of Islam group to leave Douma or face an all-out offensive.

 

___

 

12:30 p.m.

 

The Russian military says a deal has been reached for the largest rebel group in the enclave of eastern Ghouta to leave the area.

 

Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi of the Russian military's General Staff told Friday's briefing that the agreement envisages that the rebels and their families leave the Syrian town of Douma, just outside of Damascus.

 

The announcement came after the Syrian government on Wednesday issued a three-day ultimatum to the Army of Islam group to leave Douma or face an all-out offensive.

 

The Syrian government and the Russian military backing it have demanded that Army of Islam members leave the area for northern Syria, following other rebels who left eastern Ghouta.

 

Rudskoi said over 143,000 people, including 13,793 and 23,544 members of their families have left eastern Ghouta.

 

___

 

11:55 a.m.

 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has responded angrily at France for suggesting that it could help establish a dialogue between Turkey and a Syrian group that is dominated by Kurdish fighters that Ankara considers to be terrorists.

 

Erdogan on Friday accused French President Emmanuel Macron of overstepping "his limits" and going "over his head," adding that Turkey would never negotiate with "terrorists."

 

He was speaking after Macron met with members of the Syrian Democratic Forces, pledged French support to the group, and suggested that Turkey could establish dialogue with the group with Paris' help.

 

In his address in Ankara, the Turkish leader also said he held a telephone conversation with Macron last week during which the French leader made "bizarre" comments that forced Erdogan to raise his voice and respond with a "high frequency."

 

___

 

11:15 a.m.

 

The U.S. military says two coalition personnel have been killed and five were wounded by an improvised explosive device in Syria.

 

A U.S. military statement says the incident occurred on Thursday night and that the wounded personnel were being evacuated for further medical treatment.

 

Friday's statement did not say where the explosion occurred and did not state the casualties are Americans.

 

A Syrian official had told The Associated Press earlier that a roadside bomb exploded in the mixed Arab-Kurdish town of Manbij. Mohammed Abu Adel, the head of the Manbij Military Council, an Arab-Kurdish US.-backed group in the town, says the bomb went off hundreds of meters away from a security headquarters that houses the council just before midnight on Thursday.

 

The coalition statement said details pertaining to the incident are being withheld pending further investigation.

 

___

 

8:35 a.m.

 

A Syrian official says a roadside bomb has gone off in a tense, mixed Arab-Kurdish town not far from the border with Turkey.

 

Mohammed Abu Adel, the head of the Manbij Military Council, an Arab-Kurdish US.-backed group in the town, says the bomb went off hundreds of meters away from a security headquarters that houses the council just before midnight on Thursday.

 

A U.S. military official said on Friday an incident involving coalition forces was reported in Manbij but said no more information was available.

 

Col. Ryan Dillon said the coalition was still gathering information about the incident.

 

Manbij is under threat of a Turkish military operation. Ankara says Syrian Kurdish militiamen it views as "terrorists" and an extension of Kurdish insurgents inside Turkey is in control of the town. </s> MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian military police have been deployed in the Syrian town of Douma as of Thursday, RIA news agency reported, citing Russia's defense ministry.

"They are the guarantors of law and order in the town," the ministry was quoted as saying.

 Earlier on Thursday, Russian news agencies reported that Syrian government forces had taken full control over Douma, which was the last rebel stronghold in the eastern Ghouta enclave outside Damascus.

 

 (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by John Stonestreet)
Syrian government fighters remove the last rebels from Douma, completing the Syrian government's recapture of former rebel stronghold Eastern Ghouta.