Rebels launch fresh assault on Damascus

Latest push comes on eve of Syrian peace talks

REBELS and jihadists launched a fresh assault on east Damascus yesterday, just two days before another round of UN-backed peace talks were set to get under way in Switzerland.

Clashes raged between regime forces on one side and opposition fighters and allied jihadists from the Fateh al-Sham Front, formerly al-Qaeda’s branch in the war-ravaged country.

The renewed fighting in Damascus came two days after Syrian government forces repelled the largest rebel incursion into the capital in years.

There was a large explosion at sunrise yesterday, followed by fierce clashes, shelling and government air strikes on opposition positions.

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights head Rami Abdel Rahman said the blast was likely caused by a rebel car-bomb attack on a regime position between the Jobar and Qabun districts. There were plumes of dark smoke rising from eastern neighbourhoods.

The official Sana news agency said 12 people were wounded in rebel shelling.

“The Syrian army is facing attempts by terrorist groups to advance north of Jobar and is surrounding them,” it reported.

Rebels hold half of the eastern Jobar neighbourhood, a few kilometres from the city centre, and are seeking to link it to the besieged northern district of Qabun.

A Damascus resident said: “Our windows and doors rattle with each bombardment.

“I’m frightened that the armed groups will advance further. I hope they will be stopped.”

The Observatory said Syria’s air force responded to the renewed rebel assault with raids on their positions, while opposition fighters shelled the Abbasid and Tijara neighbourhoods near Jobar.

The Islamist Faylaq al-Rahman rebel group and the Fateh al-Sham Front – known as the al-Nusra Front before it renounced its ties to al-Qaeda – have a presence in Jobar.

Yesterday, Faylaq al-Rahman announced the second stage of the battle.

In the afternoon, Ahrar al-Sham -- an allied Islamist faction – said its fighters had seized a textile factory between Qabun and Jobar.

In video footage posted online, Ahrar al-Sham fighters could be seen stomping on official portraits of President Bashar alAssad inside the factory.

In addition to controlling half of Jobar and most of Qabun, rebels and their jihadist allies also hold positions in the Damascus districts of Tishreen and Barzeh in the north, as well as Tadamun in the south. Yesterday’s violence was the second wave of an assault, that started at the weekend, in which rebels and allied jihadists initially made gains in Jobar, even briefly advancing into Abbasid Square, 2km from Damascus’ Old City.

However, the Observatory said al-Assad loyalists drove them back and unleashed fierce bombing before calm was restored on Monday afternoon in eastern Damascus and shops opened and vehicles returned to the roads.

Clashes on Sunday and Monday killed at least 72 people – 38 government force members and 34 rebels and jihadists, the Observatory said.

“We were relieved when the roads reopened, but we are trapped once again,” an east Damascus resident said yesterday.

Syria’s conflict first erupted in March 2011 with protests against al-Assad’s rule, but has evolved over the years into a complex allout civil war.

More than 320 000 people have been killed and millions more have been displaced.

Repeated peace talks over the years have failed to bring about a political solution, but another round of negotiations is due to begin in Geneva tomorrow.

A UN spokeswoman said in the Swiss city that all invitees who had already attended talks in February had confirmed they would take part.

Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy, UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura’s deputy, is to lead the talks.