A man carries his mother at a temporary shelter in the Housh Nasri area, east of Damascus, capital of Syria, on March 16, 2018. (Xinhua/Hummam Sheikh Ali)
DAMASCUS, March 17 (Xinhua) -- As many as 50,000 people have left rebel-held areas in the capital Damascus' Eastern Ghouta within the past 72 hours, a monitor group reported on Saturday.
The civilians evacuated from areas under the control of the Failaq al-Rahman rebel group southwest of Eastern Ghouta toward government-controlled areas through the Hamouriyeh area which was captured recently by the army, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The watchdog group said the Syrian forces advanced on Saturday in the towns of Kafar Batna and Saqba in an attempt to capture those areas and tighten the noose on the rebels in Eastern Ghouta.
Earlier in the day, state news agency SANA said 10,000 people evacuated from Eastern Ghouta on Saturday alone, adding that the evacuees are being taken to shelters where they can get medical help.
The Syrian army said recently it had captured 70 percent of Eastern Ghouta, after splitting that area into sections to facilitate the battle against various rebel groups there.
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 in 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.