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Agence France-Presse

Tunnels stretch into the darkness, some wide enough to drive a car through. In Eastern Ghouta, Syrian rebels left behind an underground labyrinth, fitted with hospitals and military headquarters.
“This network of tunnels is a real spider’s web,” said a Syrian army official who escorted journalists on a visit Monday to areas of the Damascus suburb recaptured from the rebels.
President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have recaptured 95 per cent of Eastern Ghouta since launching a blistering air and ground assault six weeks ago on the besieged enclave, imposing evacuation agreements on rebel groups. 
In the capital’s Jobar district, an entrance to the underground network lies in the basement of a school converted into military headquarters by the Islamist group Faylaq al-Rahman.
The tunnels are dug about 15 metres deep. The walls are reinforced with metal rods and the tunnels are equipped with surveillance cameras and lights.


Some corridors are wide enough to drive a car through, while others can only be accessed on foot.
The network is about five kilometres long, connecting Jobar with the rebel-held areas of Ain Tarma and Zamalka.
On Saturday, the army took full control of the area following a Russian-brokered evacuation deal which saw thousands of fighters and civilians bused out of Ghouta.
In talks leading up to the deal, Russia, the Syrian government’s strongest ally, demanded that the rebels hand over the plans of the tunnel network.
In one underground room, shells arranged by firing range sat in chests marked with the names of Damascus districts.
The rebels who once held the area regularly shelled the capital, killing and wounding civilians.
“The network of tunnels connected ammunition warehouses under buildings, places difficult to identify for the Syrian air force,” the military official said.
The official SANA news agency said the military also found two underground field hospitals, equipped with medical equipment and medicine.
With rebel-held Eastern Ghouta under government siege since 2013, tunnels were used to smuggle food, medicine and fuel into the area.
In 2017, government troops tightened the siege, destroying many tunnels. Jobar’s network, however, survived.
At the exit of the tunnel, not a single civilian was in sight, only soldiers who scanned streets lined with buildings smashed into concrete carcasses and littered with rubble and corrugated metal.


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Syrian conflict

Beneath the ruins of Syria’s Ghouta, rebels left behind a labyrinth of tunnels

A Syrian government soldier stands inside a tunnel previously used by rebel fighters in Jobar in Eastern Ghouta on Tuesday. Photo: Agence France-Presse

Syrian journalists and regime members are seen inside a tunnel previously used by rebel-fighter for smuggling goods and taking shelter, in Jobar in Eastern Ghouta on April 2, 2018. Syria's regime drew closer to taking full control of Eastern Ghouta as state media reported that fighters began evacuating from the last rebel-held pocket of the former opposition stronghold near Damascus. / AFP PHOTO / LOUAI BESHARA

epa06641873 A Syrian soldier stands at one of the underground tunnels under the recently-captured Jobar town in the Eastern Ghouta, in the countryside of Damascus, Syria, 02 April 2018. According to official Syrian reports, a network of underground tunnels was discovered on 02 April in the suburb that was recently retaken by the Syrian army. The around 25-meter deep tunnel links Ein Trma town with Jobar. EPA-EFE/YOUSSEF BADAWI

As many as 16,000 civilians flee  Ghouta and Afrin as the two Syrian battles enter decisive phases

A man carries an elderly woman as hundreds of civilians, who were evacuated from Eastern Ghouta, ride buses to transport them for nearby makeshift centres, on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, on March 16, 2018. Thousands of people have fled fighting in war-torn Syria. Photo: EPA-EFE

(180316) -- DAMASCUS, March 16, 2018 (Xinhua) -- A Syrian girl eats bread at a temporary shelter in the Housh Nasri area, east of Damascus, capital of Syria, on March 16, 2018. The Syrian army said Friday it had captured 70 percent of rebel-held areas in the Eastern Ghouta countryside of the capital Damascus. A statement said thousands of people have fled Eastern Ghouta through humanitarian corridors set up by the Syrian army in Eastern Ghouta. (Xinhua/Hummam Sheikh Ali)

Syrians walk along a destroyed street in the rebel-held town of Arbin in Eastern Ghouta on March 16, 2018, as Syrian pro-government troops advance though the rebel enclave outside Damascus. The Syrian regime launched a ferocious assault on eastern Ghouta outside Damascus on February 18, saying it wanted to crush Islamist groups and jihadists. The onslaught has since taken nearly 60 percent of Eastern Ghouta. / AFP PHOTO / ABDULMONAM EASSA

(180316) -- AFRIN (SYRIA), March 16, 2018 (Xinhua) -- Internally displaced persons are seen in the town of Inab, eastern Afrin, Syria, on March 16, 2018. Turkish army has taken control of 75 percent of Afrin province in northern Syria, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday. (Xinhua)

Syrian civilians, evacuated from rebel-held areas in the Eastern Ghouta, gather at a school in the regime-controlled Hosh Nasri, on the northeastern outskirts of the capital Damascus on March 16, 2018, ahead of being relocated to other areas. On the edge of Ghouta, a sprawling semi-rural area within mortar range of central Damascus, hundreds of civilians were still streaming out of destroyed towns, carrying scant belongings in bags and bundles. / AFP PHOTO / LOUAI BESHARA

epa06608357 Hundreds of civilians, who were evacuated from Eastern Ghouta, ride buses to transport them for nearby makeshift centers, at Housh Nasri area, outskirts of Damascus, Syria, 16 March 2018. According to media reports, the Syrian army and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) evacuated the civilians via Hamoria corridor. The reports said that the Syrian army has recaptured around 70 percent of Eastern Ghouta since the start of the military offensive. On 19 February 2018 the Syrian government started a military campaign to regain control of rebels-held Eastern Ghouta in Damascus's countryside. Around 1500 civilians were killed according to local reports. EPA-EFE/YOUSSEF BADAWI

(180316) -- AFRIN (SYRIA), March 16, 2018 (Xinhua) -- Photo taken on March 16, 2018 shows a Turkish armored vehicle deployed near central Afrin, Syria. Turkish army has taken control of 75 percent of Afrin province in northern Syria, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday. (Xinhua)

Civilians ‘wait to die’ in Syria’s Ghouta district as more bombs fall, with at least 310 people killed in four days

A Syrian man stands next to rubble in a heavily-damaged street after a reported regime air strike in the rebel-held enclave of Hamouria in the Eastern Ghouta near Damascus on February 21, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / ABDULMONAM EASSA

A wounded Syrian boy receives treatment at a make-shift hospital in Kafr Batna in the besieged Eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascus following Syrian government bombardments on February 21, 2018. Syrian jets carried out more deadly raids on Eastern Ghouta as Western powers and aid agencies voiced alarm over the mounting death toll and spiralling humanitarian catastrophe. / AFP PHOTO / Amer ALMOHIBANY

A picture taken on February 21, 2018 shows a damaged make-shift ambulance vehicle amongst rubble in a heavily-damaged street in the rebel-held enclave of Hamouria in the Eastern Ghouta near Damascus, following a reported regime air strike. / AFP PHOTO / ABDULMONAM EASSA

A medic carries a wounded Syrian child at a make-shift hospital in Kafr Batna in the besieged Eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascus following Syrian government bombardments on February 21, 2018. Syrian jets carried out more deadly raids on Eastern Ghouta as Western powers and aid agencies voiced alarm over the mounting death toll and spiralling humanitarian catastrophe. / AFP PHOTO / Amer ALMOHIBANY

A picture taken on February 21, 2018 shows a view through a heavily damaged room in a pediatric care department in a hospital that was hit by a reported regime air strike in the rebel-held enclave of Hamouria in the Eastern Ghouta near Damascus. / AFP PHOTO / ABDULMONAM EASSA

Wounded Syrians wait to receive treatment at a makeshift hospital in Kafr Batna in the besieged Eastern Ghouta region following Syrian government bombardments on Wednesday. Photo: AFP

In Syria’s battered Ghouta enclave, the bodies pile up as the government’s barrel bombs rain down

A Syrian man sits amidst the destruction in the rebel-held town of Hamouria, in the besieged Eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascus, on March 9, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / ABDULMONAM EASSA

People hold a warning leaflet dropped by plane entitled "Keep yourself and your family aware" in the besieged town of Douma, Eastern Ghouta,in Damascus, Syria March 11, 2018. REUTERS/ Bassam Khabieh

Smoke billows following Syrian government bombardment on the rebel-held besieged town of Harasta, in the Eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of Damascus on March 10, 2018. Syrian regime forces cut off the largest town in Eastern Ghouta from the rest of the opposition enclave in a blow to beleaguered rebels defending their last bastion near Damascus. Government troops and allied militia have recaptured half of the besieged region in a blistering assault launched on February 18 that has left nearly 1,000 civilians dead and prompted global outcry. / AFP PHOTO / Ammar SULEIMAN

Heavy smoke billows following Syrian government bombardment in the town of Douma in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta on the eastern outskirts of the capital Damascus on Saturday. Photo: Agence France-Presse

Syria’s Assad visits eastern Ghouta as army closes in on victory

A handout photo made available by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad meeting with Syrian army soldiers, in eastern Ghouta, on March 18, 2018. Photo: SANA handout via EPA-EFE

(180319) -- DAMASCUS, March 19, 2018 (Xinhua) -- Syrian soldiers march in the town of Saqba in the capital Damascus' Eastern Ghouta after the army liberated it on March 18, 2018. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visited Eastern Ghouta on Sunday, as the army has liberated 80 percent of that area from the rebels. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani)

(180319) -- DAMASCUS, March 19, 2018 (Xinhua) -- Civilians carry their stuff back to the town of Saqba in the capital Damascus' Eastern Ghouta after the army liberated it on March 18, 2018. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visited Eastern Ghouta on Sunday, as the army has liberated 80 percent of that area from the rebels. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani)

(180319) -- DAMASCUS, March 19, 2018 (Xinhua) -- A man climbs a tree to hoist the Syrian flag in the town of Saqba in the capital Damascus' Eastern Ghouta after the army liberated it on March 18, 2018. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visited Eastern Ghouta on Sunday, as the army has liberated 80 percent of that area from the rebels. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani)

In this photo released on the official Facebook page of the Syrian Presidency, Syrian soldiers take selfies with Syrian President Bashar Assad, center, as he visits his troops at the front line in the newly captured areas of eastern Ghouta, near the capital Damascus, Syria, Sunday, March 18, 2018. Al-Ikhbariya TV broadcast the still images Sunday of Assad surrounded by soldiers on a street in eastern Ghouta, the region near Damascus where a Syrian offensive has been underway over the past month. It was not clear where in eastern Ghouta Assad was. (Syrian Presidency Facebook Page via AP)

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