Grinding battle for eastern Ghouta
Area home to thousands of well-armed fighters
The Syrian Government’s battle to recapture the rebelheld eastern suburbs of Damascus is likely to be a long and bloody fight because of the presence of thousands of battlehardened fighters who have had years to prepare.
Many of the fighters entrenched in eastern Ghouta are originally from the area and move around using an elaborate network of underground tunnels, giving them an advantage against President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and their Russian- and Iranianbacked allies.
The territory of some 400,000 residents is the last major oppositioncontrolled area near Assad’s seat of power, and the rebels have been targeting the capital with volleys of mortar shells, disrupting life in a reminder that they can deprive the city of peace as the Government backed by Russia rains down bombs and carnage on the besieged area. If the Government retakes eastern Ghouta, only one small pocket south of the capital held by Isis (Islamic State) will remain out of government control.
Among the more than 20,000 fighters in eastern Ghouta, a few hundred belong to the al-Qaedalinked Levant Liberation Committee, giving the Government a pretext to continue with its assault. Rebel factions want the al-Qaeda-linked fighters to leave and blame the Government for preventing it.
In a letter on Tuesday to United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the three main rebel factions in eastern Ghouta said they were committed to making al-Qaedalinked fighters and their families leave within 15 days. An official with one of the most powerful groups, the Army of Islam, said that if the alQaeda-linked fighters don’t leave or abandon the fight, “all options” are open against them.
Here is a look at groups involved in the battle for eastern Ghouta. Army of Islam One of the most powerful rebel factions in Syria, the Army of Islam is backed by Saudi Arabia and adheres to the ultraconservative Salafi ideology of Islam. It was founded by Zahran Alloush, who was in prison for anti-government activities and adopting a hardline Islamic ideology when the uprising again Assad began in March 2011 and was released months later.
Since the rise of Isis in 2014, the Army of Islam has repeatedly clashed with the extremists as well as with al-Qaeda-linked fighters. It is headquartered in Douma, the most populated town in eastern Ghouta.
The group started with a small number of fighters soon after protests in Syria turned into an armed insurgency, and grew under Alloush to an estimated 10,000 fighters armed with tanks, armoured personnel carriers, artillery and mortars.
The Army of Islam has been blamed for major human rights violations.
In 2015, when eastern Ghouta was under intense government bombardment, Alloush ordered members of Assad’s Alawite minority confined to cages in public areas and markets, using them as human shields to try to prevent further airstrikes, and drove the captives around Ghouta in cages placed on trucks. Alloush was killed in an airstrike on Christmas Day 2015 that was blamed on Russia.
The Army of Islam is taking part in UN-sponsored peace talks in Geneva as well as negotiations in the Kazakh capital of Astana sponsored by Russia, Iran and Turkey. Failaq al-Rahman Failaq al-Rahman, or Al-Rahman Corps, is the second-largest rebel group in eastern Ghouta. Backed by Turkey and Qatar, it controls most of the central parts of the territory, including the towns of Arbeen, Kfar Batna, Saqba and Hammouriyeh, which have been among the hardest hit in recent fighting. The group also controls parts of the Damascus neighbourhood of Jobar.
The group has about 8000 fighters, the vast majority of them from eastern Ghouta. The group is wellarmed and its military commander, Abdul-Nasser Shmeir, is a former captain of the Syrian army. The group is also taking part in the peace talks in Geneva and Astana. Ahrar al-Sham Ahrar al-Sham has been involved in deadly battles against fighters of the al-Qaeda-linked Levant Liberation Committee in the northern province of Idlib and Aleppo.
Although at the start of its rise the group adopted an extreme ideology, now it markets itself as a moderate rebel group. In eastern Ghouta, it has a strong presence in the Damascus suburb of Harasta and nearby areas.
Months after the uprising against Assad’s Government began in March 2011, Ahrar al-Sham was founded by several Islamists, including Mohammed Baheya, who had links to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and reportedly fought against US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Baheya was killed in a suicide bombing in 2014 while trying to mediate between Isis and the alQaeda-linked Nusra Front. Levant Liberation Committee The Levant Liberation Committee rejects any peace talks with the Government and because of its ties to al-Qaeda is considered a terror organisation by the UN. It has about 600 fighters in eastern Ghouta.
Since the end of 2017, there have been on-and-off negotiations to try to evacuate the al-Qaeda-linked fighters and their families from eastern Ghouta, but the rebels say Assad’s Government has frustrated all such attempts as a pretext to attack the area. — AP