Syrian army advances on eastern Ghouta as civilians flee

Hundreds of civilians streamed out of a town in Syria's besieged, opposition-held enclave of eastern Ghouta on Thursday, crossing on foot to government-held territory near the capital, Damascus, according to footage on state-run Syrian television.

Al-Ikhbariya TV showed men, women and children walking out of the town of Hamouria, some carrying their belongings, including clothes and mattresses, over their heads. Based on the footage, there were hundreds, if not thousands of civilians.

The mass exit came as Syrians marked seven years since the popular uprising that sparked their country's vicious civil war and hours after Syrian government forces blanketed the town with airstrikes and rocket fire.

They are burning Ghouta to the ground.- Media activist Anas al-Dimashqi

Al-Mayadeen TV showed buses waiting to pick up civilians. Al-Ihkbariya said they will be taken to a centrefor identification and relief.

The departure appears to be the largest civilian exodus from eastern Ghouta since the government launched a punishing assault on the rebel-held region more than three weeks ago. More than 1,200 civilians have been killed in government and Russian airstrikes and rocket fire.

Men interviewed bystate TV reporters heaped praise on the army and President Bashar al-Assad and said armed groups had humiliated them and held them against their will in eastern Ghouta.

The government and rebels have traded accusations over who is blocking civilians from leaving.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said government forces targeted a column of civilians fleeing Hamouria before dawn Thursday, wounding several people. It says 26 people were killed in government strikes on the town on Wednesday.

Many remain trapped

The UNestimates that close to 400,000 people are trapped inside the government's siege of eastern Ghouta. They are running out of room to flee as government forces close in on the space.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross managed to send a joint relief agencies convoy with aid for thousands of displaced into another part of eastern Ghouta, the town of Douma, the ICRC said.

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According to Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, the organization's first responders were unable to reach the wounded in several other towns in eastern Ghouta because of the intensity of the assault. It said one of its rescue workers was killed in an airstrike on the town of Hazeh.

"They are burning Ghouta to the ground," said Anas al-Dimashqi, a media activist and resident of Kafr Batna, a town also targeted in intense airstrikes Thursday.

Reports of napalm-like weapons

Dimashqi, the White Helmets and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that government and Russian aircraft were using napalm-like incendiary weapons to spread fires in the towns.

The Syrian government, backed by its allies Iran and Russia, is determined to retake control of the former farming region just outside Damascus, after seven years of war that has killed around 450,000 people and displaced millions.

Damascus and Moscow have ignored a Feb. 25 UNSecurity Council resolution demanding a ceasefire for the entire country.

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The eastern Ghouta region was one of the hubs of the uprising against Assad in 2011 and was quickly targeted for siege, mass arrests and extrajudicial killings by security forces.

Government forces cleaved the region in two parts earlier this week, and isolated the area's largest town, Douma, from the rest of the suburbs.

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Douma has seen four days of relative calm, said local media activist Youssef Boustani.

The 25-truck aid convoy organized by the international Red Cross, the Syrian Red Crescent and the United Nations crossed into eastern Ghouta on Thursday, according to the ICRC.

Damascus routinely blocks the aid agencies from delivering relief to opposition-held areas in the country.

The Russian military, meanwhile, said it had extended a "humanitarian pause" to operations targeting Douma through Thursday and Friday. It claimed the pause has allowed growing numbers of civilians to reach safety.

Maj. Gen. Yuri Yevtushenko was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that 131 people left the area through the humanitarian corridor on Wednesday. Maj. Gen. Vladimir Zolotukhin said some 100 people are expected to be evacuated on Thursday.