Assad forces working to isolate Daesh in south Damascus battle
beirut — Syrian government forces moved to cut off Daesh militants in southern Damascus from nearby rebel-held suburbs in an attempt to force the extremists to surrender or evacuate the district, state media reported.
The area in southern Damascus is the last part of the capital not controlled by President Bashar Al Assad’s forces. Other insurgents in the area, including an Al Qaedalinked group, have said they would relocate to rebel-held regions in northern Syria.
State-run Al Ikhbariya TV said the government hopes to isolate Daesh in the Hajar Al Aswad. The TV station showed thick, gray smoke billowing from the neighbourhood as government forces pounded it with artillery and airstrikes. Damascus residents said the sound of explosions echoed across the capital.
The TV said Daesh snipers targeted journalists covering the fighting, without saying whether anyone was hurt.
Hundreds of Daesh militants are holed up in Hajar Al Aswad and Yarmouk, a Palestinian refugee camp that resembles a built-up residential neighbourhood. Rebels from other factions hold the nearby suburbs of Yalda, Babila and Beit Sahem.
Daesh agreed to give up its last pocket of Damascus on Friday but has yet to begin surrendering to government forces and relocating to Daesh-held areas elsewhere in the country. Daesh said in a statement that the government had launched 400 airstrikes on Hajar Al Aswad and Yarmouk, destroying large parts of the neighbourhoods. It claimed to have killed more than three dozen government forces, but there was no independent confirmation, and the extremist group often exaggerates such figures. The UN said that since the fighting began last week, most of the 6,000 civilians in Yarmouk camp have been forcibly displaced to the neighbouring suburb of Yalda.—