Uneasy calm in east Damascus

BATTLE: GOVERNMENT FORCES REPEL REBELS, JIHADISTS

US investigating reports civilians were killed near mosque.

Syrian government forces clashed with rebels and hammered opposition-held areas of east Damascus on Monday, before calm returned to the capital after a surprise assault.

In the north of the country, meanwhile, a Kurdish militia said the Russian military is to train Kurdish forces fighting the Islamic State group.

Rebels and allied jihadists, led by former al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front, early on Sunday attacked government positions in east Damascus, initially scoring gains.

But forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad drove them back by nightfall and began a fierce bombing campaign, a monitor said, before calm was restored on Monday afternoon.

Earlier on Monday, regime forces clashed with rebel groups in an industrial zone between Jobar and Qabun, a besieged opposition-held district to the north.

A Syrian military source said the army had recaptured “most of the positions where rebels advanced yesterday”.

“The army foiled the armed groups’ plan to link the Jobar district with Qabun,” the source said.

Aircraft could still be heard overhead, but many of the roads that had been sealed off by troops the previous day were reopened.

The clashes killed at least 26 members of the regime forces and 21 rebels and jihadists.

State news agency Sana reported that opposition fighters on Sunday bombarded the Russian embassy compound in the capital’s Mazraa neighbourhood but that there were no casualties.

An Israeli raid on Friday, close to central Palmyra, prompted a barrage of anti-aircraft fire by the Syrian army and a missile was fired towards Israeli territory.

The war saw a turning point when Russia intervened in September 2015, in support of the regime, allowing pro-government forces to regain significant territory they had lost to the rebels.

Russian forces were already present at the training camp in the Afrin region, one of three autonomous cantons that Kurdish authorities manage in northern Syria.

Russia has not officially confirmed the announcement of the accord, but acknowledged it has a presence in Afrin.

The US Defence Department said it was investigating allegations that a strike on Thursday, targeting al-Qaeda leaders near a mosque in northern Syria, killed numerous civilians. –