Thousands of civilians streamed out of their towns in Syria’s north and south on March 17 as they sought to escape a military offensive by Syrian government forces on a rebel-held area near Damascus and Turkey's operation against a Kurdish enclave.
Syrian state media said that 10,000 more men, women, and children fled eastern Ghouta for government-controlled territory, as Russian-backed Syrian troops pressed on their offensive on the last opposition-controlled pocket near the capital.
The assault has killed more than 1,390 civilians in the enclave, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Another deadly offensive is unfolding in the north, where Turkish-led forces pressed a ground and air operation to seize the Kurdish-held region of Afrin.
The offensive has sent more than 200,000 civilians onto the roads in less than three days, the Observatory said.
It also said that a Turkish strike on March 16 hit Afrin's hospital, killing nine people and damaging the already-strapped facility.
Turkey’s military denied shelling the hospital.
The seven-year war in Syria, which began with a government crackdown on peaceful protests, has claimed more than 350,000 lives, according to a UN-backed inquiry.
