Tearful reunions, uncertain fates for Syrians fleeing Ghouta Syrian soldier Ayman al-Khatib scoured the crowds streaming out of Eastern Ghouta until he spotted his parents. Falling to his knees, he embraced them for the first time in seven years. A year after the young fighter left his hometown in 2011 for compulsory military service, Ghouta fell to rebels -- putting Khatib and his parents on opposite sides of one of Syria's most ferocious battlefronts. Zakariya and the rest of the Khatib family were among around 2,000 people who fled Ghouta on Friday through a "safe corridor" leading into government-held territory.