THOUSANDS of civilians have streamed out of a town in Syria’s besieged, rebel-held enclave of eastern Ghouta on Thursday after a punishing government assault.

Footage on state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV showed men, women and children walking out of the town of Hamouria carrying their belongings and heading towards government-held territory near the capital, Damascus.

The channel said nearly 10,000 people left on Monday – the largest civilian exodus from eastern Ghouta since the government first attacked the region more than three weeks ago.

More than 1200 civilians have been killed in government and Russian air strikes and rocket fire.

The mass exit came as Syrians marked seven years since the popular uprising that caused their country’s vicious civil war – and hours after Syrian government forces blanketed the town with airstrikes and rocket fire.

Al-Mayadeen TV showed buses waiting to pick up civilians. Al-Ihkbariya said they will be taken to a centre for identification and relief.

Men interviewed by state media praised the army and president Bashar Assad and said armed groups had humiliated them and held them against their will in eastern Ghouta.

The government and rebels have traded accusations over who is blocking civilians from leaving.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the number of those who had left eastern Ghouta so far at 9300.