Syrians leaving Damascus amid civil war battles

A NEW exodus from Syria is under way as fighting edges closer to the heart of Damascus with those who swore they would never flee selling their belongings to escape a battle now raging on their doorsteps.

Many Syrians in the capital had insisted the uprising-turned-civil war would not reach the city centre. Others said they would stay, no matter the consequences.

But fear has begun to grip even the most resolute residents.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

For many the tipping point was the stream of mortar bombs and rockets that shook Damascus for several days last month as rebels and troops loyal to president Bashar al-Assad brought tit-for-tat bombardments to the capital’s core.

March was the most violent month in Syria’s two-year-old civil war, with an estimated 6,000 people killed after increased fighting around Damascus and the southern province of Deraa.

In response, families once determined to remain in the city are packing up and leaving.

“My wife barely likes to go away on holiday. And now, who would have thought we’d be packing to leave?” said Ibrahim, who owns a textile business that his family had run for generations in this ancient city. “God only knows when we’ll be back.”

More than one million Syrian refugees have already left, with thousands more fleeing daily.

Ibrahim and wife Lana, who asked for their family names to be withheld, live in the middle-class neighbourhood of Rukn al-Din, where they raised four children.

Mortar and rocket fire has convulsed their once-tranquil district in the past few weeks. One huge blast killed several people outside their home and broke some of their windows.

“Things are only getting worse. Sometimes I hear the regime shells fly by our building on their way to the rebels. Then I sit and pray, thinking the retaliatory shelling is going to kill us,” Lana said. “We have our ten-year-old daughter with us, and she’s always afraid now. I can’t take this any more.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Strapped for cash, the couple sold their two cars to pay for air fares and perhaps a few months’ rent in a new home in Egypt.

She is taking her jewellery with her, which she estimates to be worth about $3,000 or $4,000, “in case we need extra cash”.

Lana and Ibrahim are luckier than some.

Another couple, Mayada and Yasser, are looking to flee again, months after they left their home in the suburb of Qudseya outside Damascus – now a ghost town and battleground.

Their move, to stay with parents in central Damascus, is typical of thousands of Syrians who fled fighting on the outskirts, only for the violence to edge ever closer.

Penury also looms for people like Yasser, a nutritionist and personal trainer, who has earned little in the past two years. Twice he was just yards from a mortar bomb explosion, he says.

“Both my wife and I care for our elderly parents, and we’re very close to our siblings,” said Yasser. “When we got married, we promised each other we’d never move abroad for these reasons. But now, things are so bad our parents are begging us to leave.”

Mayada chimed in: “Our lives have been on hold for two years now. How long can we put up with this?”

They hope to fly to Jordan or the United Arab Emirates, depending on where they can get visas. Mayada plans to sell her jewellery to help keep them afloat for a few weeks.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Even the affluent have trouble now. Wafa and her husband Rasheed, a doctor, fled last Thursday from the wealthy neighbourhood of Abu Rumaneh where they grew up.

“We thought we just had to wait this war out,” said Wafa, the young mother of two small boys. “Where would we go? Our home is here. Our parents are here. Our childhood memories. The clinic. We never thought we’d live anywhere else.”

But shelling has struck Abu Rumaneh at least four times in the past month. One mortar round exploded in the park their home overlooks, another smashed into the dome of the mosque down the road.

“It’s been so frightening for us and our babies,” said Wafa, sitting in her newly rented modest home in a Beirut suburb.

Her voice echoes in the sparsely furnished apartment. “Even living in a shack is better than the fright we’ve endured.”

Heritage hit

The ancient oasis city of Palmyra, 135 miles north-east of Damascus, is being damaged in clashes between president Bashar al-Assad’s forces and rebels fighting for his overthrow in the midst of the precious archaeological site, a resident has said.

Amateur footage filmed by the resident shows the façade of the first century Temple of Baal with a large circle where a mortar bomb has blasted the sandstone. The columns of the great colonnade that extends from the temple have been chipped by shrapnel.

“The rebels are around the town,” said the resident, who asked not to be named. “They hide in the desert, some to the east and some to the west.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The groups attack government positions in the town at night, he said.

Hiding in the palm groves behind the ruins, the militants creep towards the ancient site, once a vital stopping point for caravans crossing the Syrian desert carrying spices, silks and perfumes, and the modern town of Tadmur behind it.

The government responds with mortar bombs, artillery shells and rockets, the resident said.

“For the past two months we have had shelling every night,” said the resident, who supports the opposition movement. “The army have positioned themselves in the museum, between the town and the ruins.”

Related topics: