Aid arrives as civilians leave eastern Ghouta

Nearly 10,000 civilians have evacuated the besieged Syrian region of eastern Ghouta outside Damascus, where clashes persist between government troops and opposition forces, state media confirmed Thursday. The Syrian-run al-Ikhbariya TV said the fleeing civilians used a Syrian military humanitarian corridor to enter government-held territory. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed some 9,300 civilians left by Thursday. Syrian responders said government troops and their Russian allies continued to hit the region with airstrikes and rocket fire. The fighting had prevented aid from entering the region, but the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) said a joint humanitarian convoy on Thursday arrived with 25 aid trucks. The ICRC said in a Twitter post the aid delivery was “just a little of what these families need.”