Syria cops in Damascus after ISIS captures area

Damascus, May 22: Syrian police deployed across devastated districts in southern Damascus on Tuesday, according to state media, a day after the government captured the area from the Islamic State group.

The government on Monday seized the Yarmuk Palestinian camp and adjacent neighbourhoods of Tadamun and Hajar al- Aswad, putting Damascus fully under its control for the first time since 2012.

On Tuesday, police units entered Yarmuk and Hajar al- Aswad and planted the two- star Syrian flag, state television reported.

It broadcast images of security forces atop a pockmarked multi- storey building in Yarmuk where they had hung the national flag. They had also plastered pictures of President Bashar alAssad and his predecessor and father Hafez.

Other police officers gathered in the ravaged streets below and fired in the air in celebration.

“The police are present round- the- clock,” said one officer interviewed on the state broadcaster.

“Special units are deployed across the camp to help any civilians and protect their belongings,” he said.

It also showed footage from Hajar al- Aswad of a convoy of police cars and motorcycles making its way through dusty streets lined with crumbling buildings. There were no civilians in sight.

Yarmuk, Hajar alAswad and the nearby district of Tadamun all lie in a southern pocket of Damascus that had escaped regime control for several years.

The government began losing its grip on parts of the capital in 2012, just one year after the conflict in Syria erupted.

The government seized the Yarmuk Palestinian camp and neighbourhoods of Tadamun and Hajar al- Aswad, putting Damascus fully under its control for the first time since 2012