A White Helmets rescuers takes a baby away from site of a pro-Assad bombing in Harasta near Damascus (File)

European countries and Canada are acting to save White Helmets rescuers from attacks by Assad regime elements, following the recapture of opposition parts of Syria.

Officials from The Netherlands, UK, France, Canada, and Germany raised the issue with Donald Trump on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Brussels last week.. They estimate that about 1,000 volunteers and familiy members are in reoccupied parts of southern Syria, and consider about 800 of them to be in imminent danger.

Pro-Assad forces, enabled by Russian airstrikes, took East Ghouta near Damascus in April and forced the capitulation of much of Daraa Province, where the Syrian uprising began in 2011, earlier this month.

In East Ghouta, regime security forces reportedly detained hundreds of residents and forcibly conscripted men of military age.

In their surrender agreement with Russian officials in Daraa, rebels have sought guarantees against any punishment by the regime military and police.

But, following Russia’s breaking of the “de-escalation zone” that it declared alongside the US last July, an American official summarized, “They are promising no retribution on anyone in the southwest but nobody trusts or believes that.”

UK Prime Minister Theresa May also raised the issue with Donald Trump during a meeting at her Chequers residence on Friday.

Trump has offered no public response.

US officials and Western diplomats say no evacuation of White Helmets has been put on the agenda of Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, because they are not sure if the Russians can be trusted to help.

Moscow has led a disinformation campaign smearing the White Helmets as extremist and claiming that their rescues are faked.

The group, formed in 2013 to provide civil defense and rescue operations for opposition areas, says it has saved 115,000 lives.

A Western diplomat says dozens of ground escape routes are being explored, but all face roadblocks. Russia would have to be involved in any aerial evacuation.

Leading opposition activist Raed al-Fares met officials at the White House, the State Department, and on Capitol Hill last week.

“We love you,’ they told me,” Fares reported with more than hint of scepticism. “But they said it was all Mr. Trump and [Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo.”