Evacuations begin from Syrian town
DOUMA, Syria - Aid workers have begun evacuating emergency medical cases from Syria's besieged rebel bastion of Eastern Ghouta, the Red Cross said on Wednesday, after months of waiting during which the United Nations said at least 16 people died.
Families waited in the darkness in the rebel-held town of Douma for their loved ones to board ambulances bound for hospitals in the capital Damascus.
Under a deal with the government, five workmen detained by the rebels during fierce clashes with the army in March were released in exchange.
Three children were among the first four patients to leave, Red Crescent official Ahmed al-Saour said.
He said in total 29 seriously ill people were due to be evacuated.
The first four were a girl with hemophilia, a baby with the autoimmune disorder Guillain-Barre, a child with leukemia, and a man in need of a kidney transplant, he said.
The dominant rebel faction in Eastern Ghouta, Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam), said the rebels had agreed to free some of their prisoners in return for the evacuations.
Eastern Ghouta is one of the last remaining rebel strongholds in Syria and has been under a tight government siege since 2013, causing severe food and medical shortages for its nearly 400,000 residents.
Meanwhile, Moscow said it will deploy a naval unit permanently in the eastern Mediterranean after the military operation in Syria ends, according to a top Russian military official.
Earlier, Russia had pulled out most of its troops from Syria, keeping only the Hmeymim air base and the Tartus naval base there.
The Tartus naval base in northwestern Syria, established in 1977, is currently Russia's sole support facility in the Mediterranean.
In January, Syria agreed to let Russia keep its naval facility in Tartus for at least 49 years, and expand and overhaul the maintenance infrastructure there.
Afp - Xinhua
(China Daily 12/28/2017 page12)
