120,000 people evacuate Syria's Eastern Ghouta in 8 days: monitor

DAMASCUS, March 23 (Xinhua) -- As many as 120,000 people have so far evacuated rebel-held areas in the Syrian capital Damascus' Eastern Ghouta countryside, a monitor group reported on Friday.

The latest batch was a total of 2,450 people that reached government-controlled areas through the Wafidin crossing northeast of Damascus on Friday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The civilians have been fleeing out of Eastern Ghouta since March 14, and the numbers kept increasing whenever the Syrian army captured new areas in that sprawling area.

This comes as more areas are falling to the Syrian forces in Eastern Ghouta and rebel groups agree to evacuate their positions to rebel-held areas in the northwestern province of Idlib.

The Syrian forces have already captured over 80 percent of that area since unleashing a wide-scale offensive to dislodge the rebels late last month.

Eastern Ghouta, a 105-square-km agricultural region consisting of several towns and farmlands, poses the last threat to the capital due to its proximity to government-controlled neighborhoods east of Damascus and ongoing mortar attacks that target residential areas in the capital, pushing people over the edge.

Four major rebel groups are currently positioned inside Eastern Ghouta, namely the Islam Army, Failaq al-Rahman, Ahrar al-Sham, and the Levant Liberation Committee, known as the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front.

The UN humanitarian agencies have sounded the alarm about the worsening humanitarian situation for 400,000 people in that region, where activists said around 1,000 people have been killed since late last month by the heavy bombardment and military showdown in areas of Eastern Ghouta. Enditem