Rebels fire on civilians attempting to leave Eastern Ghouta: report

DAMASCUS, March 8 (Xinhua) -- The armed rebels fired on the second humanitarian corridor that was established on Thursday to prevent civilians from leaving the rebel-held areas in the capital Damascus' Eastern Ghouta countryside, said the War Media, the media wing of the Syrian army.

The rebels fired on the corridor between the town of Mlaiha and the rebel-held Jisreen area in Eastern Ghouta, said the report.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry was cited by local media outlets as saying that three cars were set ablaze when the rebels fired on a convoy transporting 300 people toward the humanitarian corridor in Mlaiha.

The attacks have obviously prevented the civilians from leaving, as no one left through the new humanitarian corridor on Thursday.

The Syrian government on Thursday prepared the second humanitarian corridor, after ten days of a failed attempt to receive civilians from the first designated crossing in Wafidin area northeast of Damascus.

The civilians' evacuation from the rebel-held areas in Eastern Ghouta is an essential part of the Russian-backed daily humanitarian pause, which has so far seen the evacuation of only a few civilians from Eastern Ghouta. Syrian government accuses the rebels of preventing the civilians from leaving.

The Syrian army has captured 52 percent of Eastern Ghouta in recent days, as part of an ongoing large-scale offensive to dislodge the rebels from the area.

UN humanitarian agencies have sounded the alarm about the worsening humanitarian situation in Eastern Ghouta, where activists said over 800 people have been killed since late last month by intensified shelling and fighting between government troops and the rebels. Enditem