Eastern Ghouta exodus: As rebel area falls, many take leap into 'unknown'
Three weeks ago, Amer Zeidan saw no way out of eastern Ghouta but death.
It was impossible, he said, for civilians to trust a Syrian regime that devoted so much energy to bombing and starving the opposition enclave into submission.
His grim forecast proved true for his sister, Marwa, whom he buried last week.
Barely a week after reporting this loss, Mr. Zeidan made the decision to leave. Between 3 and 7 a.m. on Tuesday, the Syrian aid worker types away at a new batch of messages documenting the start of a long-dreaded journey out of his neighborhood, Arbeen.
“All of us are entering into a dark tunnel, and we ignore what will happen to us,” he says. “We have left everything and are headed to the unknown.”
After more than a month of Syrian government and Russian bombardment that has claimed 1,700 lives and seen the loss of 90 percent of the last rebel enclave in the suburbs east of Damascus, the residents of eastern Ghouta have only three stark
From siege to surrenderBrief talks with Russian 'victors''The terror of being outside''I would stay'