Horrifying footage from the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta in Syria shows women and children running for their lives as the dust settles after yet another government air strike, writes dailymail.co.uk.

The video, filmed by White Helmet rescue workers, sees civilians crawling out of the remains of their homes and scrambling to a van, as President Bashar Al-Assad continues his siege of the area on the outskirts of Damascus.

Russian-backed regime forces, broke into a key town in the beleaguered rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta late Wednesday, driving further into the last opposition bastion outside Damascus.

More than 1,220 civilians - a fifth of them children - have been killed in the rebel-held enclave since the Syrian regime launched a ferocious air and ground offensive on February 18. 

Some 9,300 people are reported to have been able to escape Eastern Ghouta into government-held territory on Thursday, via the town of Hammuriyeh, where the Syrian army had opened a corridor after a late-night advance.

Syrian state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV showed footage of men, women and children streaming out of the besieged region, carrying their belongings including clothes, mattresses and suitcases.

Hammuriyeh later fell to government forces after Islamist rebels from Faylaq al-Rahman withdrew, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

Meanwhile, Moscow has for the first time clearly confirmed that its military is playing a role in the assault on Eastern Ghouta, after previously providing few details of its involvement in the offensive.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today: 'We will continue fighting terrorists, we will finish them off, we will help finish them off in Eastern Ghouta, where the Syrian army is now conducting operations with our support'.

Today, on the seventh anniversary of the Syrian civil war, the country looks nowhere near peace and unity, with battles on several fronts with a number of combatants. 

International efforts have consistently failed to stop one of the deadliest wars of the century, with more than 350,000 people killed since the conflict first erupted, and more than half of Syria's pre-war population of 20 million displaced.