About 1350 civilians manage to escape death and move from Wadi Al-‘Azeeb to the areas controlled by the factions and Hayaat Tahrir Al-Sham in the countryside of Hama and Idlib
The SOHR observed that about 600 persons, mostly children and women, managed to reach areas controlled by the factions and Hayaat Tahrir Al-Sham in the countryside of Hama and Idlib through Wadi Al-‘Azeeb area in the eastern countryside of Hama. Some of the citizens arriving from east of Hama confirmed to the SOHR activists that they took a road controlled by the regime forces and managed to avoid positions of the regime forces through roads and valleys passing between them. They also confirmed that the regime forces opened fire on them using their machine guns, causing the death of two persons at least, Thus, the number of civilians whose arrival has been documented by the SOHR during the past 48 hours rose to about 1350.
Where the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights published on the 2nd of September that tens of families reached the controlled areas of Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham in the eastern countryside of Hama and headed towards Idlib, coming from Wadi al-Azeeb area in the north-eastern countryside of Salamiyah, in the eastern countryside of Hama, reliable sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that about 750 persons most of them are children and citizen women managed to get out of Wadi al-Azeeb area and reach Al-Rahjan area, and some of them headed to the southern countryside of Idlib, after they crossed the controlled areas of the regime during the past 48 hours.
The Reliable sources confirmed to the activists of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that the “Islamic State” organization warned citizens not to move from this area which is controlled by the regime forces, and that it is planted with mines and it is witnessing a movement of the regime forces’ patrols between the spread checkpoints along the line separated between the controlled areas of Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham and the factions and the controlled areas of the “Islamic State” organization, but the desperation of the families that are waiting in tragic human conditions, forced them to risk themselves and their children to survive, and the safe arrival of some families to the areas controlled by Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham encouraged the rest of the families to get out sequentially, in which these families are trying to sneak during the night hours in order not to be targeted by the regime force, while the sources confirmed that the most of citizens in the villages which were controlled by the organization in the east of Hama, displaced to Wadi al-Azeeb area during the past days.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights published in the 29th of August 2017 that the countryside of Hama is witnessing an anticipation of implementation of evacuation of thousands of civilians trapped in the besieged circle in the eastern countryside of Hama, and the SOHR learned that hundreds of families are waiting in al-Azeeb Valley area located at 16 km southwest of Ithriyah area in the eastern countryside of Salamiyah, and reliable sources asserted to the SOHR that the trapped citizens in the northern countryside of Hama are waiting for the opening of a safe corridor for them, while there is information about the starting of demining operations by the regime forces to open a safe corridor for the citizens to go out and head towards Idlib province, while such an escalated targeting of infrastructures and heavy shelling on and destruction of villages in the eastern countryside of Hama by the Russian and the regime’s warplanes along with its forces coincided with deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the area. About 5 thousand civilians are still trapped in this besieged area, namely the villages of the eastern countryside of Hama and the area linked to it in the eastern countryside of Homs. Tragically, they are experiencing a significant shortage of food and medicine and lack of hospitals, medical care and specialized doctors for the critical conditions. Local sources called upon International Organizations, through the SOHR, to put pressure on all actors to secure a safe passage for thousands of civilians – children, men, elderly, and women – to areas beyond the control of ISIS. Local sources confirmed to the SOHR that hundreds of families were transferred to areas near Ithriyah-Salamiyah road in order to move them to areas under the control of the factions and Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham. Contact was lost with tens of civilians while fleeing ISIS-controlled areas in the eastern countryside of Hama.