Syria: More than 11,000 people flee Eastern Ghouta as government forces step up assault on rebel enclave

President Assad's troops continue offensive with help from Russian air power, marking week of violence which has left 1,300 civilians dead

Hundreds have been evacuating destroyed towns, carrying scant belongings in bags and bundles (AFP/Getty)

More than 11,000 people have left Syria’s besieged Eastern Ghouta as government forces step up an offensive on the rebel enclave, officials say.

Major genral Vladimir Zolotukhin was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying that some 3,000 people have been leaving every hour through a government-run humanitarian corridor monitored by the Russian military.

Mr Zolotukhin is spokesman for the Russian centre for reconciliation of the warring parties in Syria.

Air strikes pounded a rebel pocket in Eastern Ghouta near the capital Damascus, rescuers and a war monitor said.

In the northern Afrin region, people fled other frontlines closing in on their homes as Turkish troops and allied rebels struck the main town, Syrian Kurdish forces and the monitor said.

More than 150,000 people have left the town in the last few days, according to a senior Kurdish official and the monitor.

The two offensives, one backed by Russia and the other led by Turkey, have shown how Syrian factions and their foreign allies are aggressively reshaping the map after the defeat of Isis's self-proclaimed caliphate last year.

Syria’s conflict marked seven years this week, having killed hundreds of thousands and displaced at least 11 million more, including nearly six million who have fled abroad in one of the worst refugee crises of modern times.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said air strikes on the rebel pocket in Eastern Ghouta killed 30 people gathering to leave for government territory on Saturday.

The UK-based war monitoring group said the strikes on Zamalka town also injured dozens. There was no immediate comment from Damascus, which says it only targets armed militants.

The Turkish military denied on Saturday that it had struck a hospital in Afrin, where it has waged an offensive since January against the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia that controls the region.

The YPG and the observatory said a Turkish air strike on Afrin town’s main hospital had killed 16 people the night before.

The weeks-long violence has left more than 1,300 civilians dead and 5,000 wounded.

AP and Reuters