After the army’s recovery of eastern Ghouta this month in a ferocious battle that began in February, the surrender of Dumayr and Qalamoun would leave only the pocket in south Damascus outside government control in the area around the capital. The reported move comes as President Bashar al-Assad accelerates his push to retake remaining enclaves and strengthen his position around the capital following the defeat of rebels in eastern Ghouta this month. Earlier on state television, large puffs of smoke could be seen along a row of buildings as an artillery salvo struck home before one collapsed in a cloud of dust, accompanied by the rattle of automatic fire and the sound of distant blasts. U.S., British and French air strikes on Saturday to punish Assad for suspected use of chemical weapons have done nothing to slow the advance of his forces, now in their strongest position since the early months of the seven-year-old war. Western countries launched their first coordinated action against Assad on Saturday to punish him for a suspected gas attack they say killed scores of people during an advance that captured the town of Ghouta near the capital. But the single volley of air strikes, hitting three targets far from any frontline, had no effect on the wider war which has killed 500,000 people and made more than half of Syrians homeless. International inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) who arrived in Damascus nearly a week ago were still waiting early on Friday to visit the site of the suspected poison gas attack. Syria and its ally Russia deny using chemical weapons in the assault on Douma. The Western countries say the Syrian government, which now controls the town, is keeping the inspectors out and may be tampering with evidence, both accusations Damascus and Moscow deny. Physicians for Human Rights, a U.S.-based rights group, voiced “grave concern” over reports that Douma hospital staff had faced “extreme intimidation” after the area came back under government control to stop them talking about the incident. The surrender of the enclave in south Damascus, which includes the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, Hajar al-Aswad district and neighbouring areas, will bring the entire area around the capital back under Assad’s control. A source familiar with negotiations between the insurgent groups there and the government told Reuters that some fighters from the enclave around Yarmouk refugee camp would be taken to eastern Syria, where Islamic State controls some territory and others to rebel areas in the northwest. According to Action Group for Palestinians in Syria, a London-based watchdog that documents human rights violations, at least four Palestinian refugees, including a member of Syria's Civil Defense, were killed in Saturday's attacks. Although most of the camp's residents fled to other parts of Syria or to neighbouring countries, the United Nations estimates thousands remain trapped inside as a result of an imposed siege that began in 2012, shortly after the Syrian war started. Jihadist shelling of an adjoining neighbourhood injured five people, Damascus police were cited as saying early on Friday by state television. Rebels on Thursday began pulling out of Dumayr, an enclave northeast of Damascus, under a surrender deal with the government. Meanwhile, remaining rebel factions in nearby eastern Qalamoun have begun evacuating to rebel-held parts of the country, after agreeing on Friday to surrender under threat of military action by government forces. Thousands of civilians, including the fighters’ families, are expected to leave with them for northern Syria before the areas come back under Assad’s rule under deals similar to others carried out across the country as government forces advance. The United Nations has voiced concern that such “evacuations” involve the displacement of civilians under threat of reprisals or forced conscription. The government denies that. “The U.N. expects further displacements in the near future to northern Syria from other locations controlled by non-state armed groups where negotiations reportedly are happening,” the world body said in a humanitarian note. Conditions in the opposition-held pocket of northern Syria where the displaced will go are poor.
Rebels in Qalamoun begin to evacuate after agreeing to surrender the region to Syria's government.