Army Continues to Help Thousands of Civilians to Exit Ghouta through Safe Corridors

DAMASCUS, (ST)- More than 5000 civilians, trapped for years by terrorists to be used as human shields, left eastern Ghouta on Sunday via safe corridors with the help of the Syrian Arab Army.

SANA reporter said that the army secured the exit of more than 5000 civilians, most of them women and children, from Ghouta. The army in cooperation with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent took the civilians to safe places in temporary housing centers where they were provided with basic needs.

 A number of civilians told SANA reporter that now they are feeling the real freedom they missed for years because of the terrorists’ atrocities and inhuman practices.

They called on other civilians, who are still trapped inside Ghouta, to leave immediately and head towards one of the army’s checkpoints.

“Hours before we leave we were threatened of being killed and tortured by the terrorists inside Ghouta with the aim of frightening us,” said one of the civilians, adding that the terrorists shot fire on his son who was injured seriously before the family could arrive at the safe corridor which was assigned by the Syrian army for the civilians’ exit.

“We felt as if we had moved from the age of slavery to freedom and to the homeland’s lap,” he stressed.

Another civilian recounted the suffering civilians experienced under the control of Jabhat al-Nusra terrorists in eastern Ghouta.

 “We used to work as slaves. The terrorists put their hands on our crops and took them to their stores. They stole everything, humiliated us, terrorized our families and children until we fed up,” he said, adding “we eagerly awaited the advance of the Syrian army towards our places to help us leave.”

“We ran under the terrorist sniper fire, which desperately tried to prevent us from leaving, until we managed to reach the safe corridor,” he pointed out.

A woman in her forties also recounted how she eagerly was waiting to hear the roar of the Syrian army tanks to feel safe and be able to leave to safety shore.    

On Saturday, a military source told SANA that 30,000 civilians, most of them women and children, have exited Eastern Ghouta through the safe corridors secured by the army.

Hamda Mustafa