BEIRUT, March 17, 2018 (AP) - The Russian military says more than 30,000 people have fled Syria's besieged east Ghouta and that the flow is continuing. Maj. Gen. Vladimir Zolotukhin was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying the civilians were leaving Saturday through a government-run humanitarian corridor monitored by the Russian military. "As of this time, more than 30,000 people have left and people are continuing to exit," he was quoted as saying Saturday afternnon by Russian news agencies. Zolotukhin is spokesman for the Russian center for reconciliation of the warring parties in Syria. Air strikes on Eastern Ghouta killed at least 30 civilians on Saturday, a monitor said, almost a month into a blistering Russia-backed regime assault on the Syrian rebel enclave outside Damascus. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights could not say who carried out the strikes on the town of Zamalka in a southern pocket of the enclave. Regime forces have retaken 70 percent of the last rebel bastion on the outskirts of the capital since February 18, carving it up into three shrinking pockets held by different rebels. "Warplanes targeted civilians in Zamalka as they prepared to flee" the southern area of the enclave held by the Faylaq al-Rahman rebel group, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said. The regime assault has killed more than 1,390 civilians in the enclave, according to the Observatory, which relies on a network of sources on the ground. The offensive has pushed thousands more to flee their homes into government-controlled areas. Meanwhile, more than 150,000 people have been displaced in the last few days from Syria's Afrin town, a senior Kurdish official and a monitoring group said on Saturday. Hevi Mustafa, a top member of the civil authority governing the Afrin region, said people were fleeing the main town to other Kurdish-held parts of the region and to government territory. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, said Turkish warplanes and artillery struck the town overnight, and at least 150,000 had fled since Wednesday. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Turkey-backed troops had surrounded Afrin city center in northwestern Syria and were ready to enter at any moment. "We are about to enter Afrin, and we may announce the good news at any time," said Erdogan at his Justice and Development (AK) Party's 6th Annual Congress in southeastern province of Mardin. He added that a total of 3,569 terrorists have been "neutralized" in Afrin since the start of Operation Olive Branch. Turkish authorities often use the word "neutralized" in their statements to imply the terrorists in question either surrendered or were killed or captured.
