EASTERN GHOUTA TOWN ALMOST IN ASSAD’S CONTROL
▶ Analyst says fall of rebel enclave to regime is inevitable as Turkish troops capture Kurdish town in Afrin region
Syrian government forces yesterday took almost complete control of the town of Al Shayfouniya in Eastern Ghouta, the last rebel stronghold near Damascus, a monitoring group said.
And Turkey said it had captured a Kurdish town in the Afrin region, in north-west Syria, where it had been fighting the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia since January, helped by allied Syrian opposition fighters.
The Turkish Prime Minister, Binali Yildirim, said his country’s troops had captured Rajo from militants, while the military said the army had taken control of seven settlements including Rajo yesterday.
But the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Turkey was in control of about 70 per cent of the town, which is about 25 kilometres north-west of the city of Afrin.
The monitoring group said that Turkish jets had hit pro-government forces for the third time in 48 hours in the area, killing 36 people. The pro-government forces are allied to the YPG.
The Syrian war has escalated on several fronts this year, with the collapse of ISIL giving way to other conflicts between Syrian and international parties.
For the past two weeks President Bashar Al Assad’s forces have been winning back territory from rebels with military support from Iran and Russia. And with no sign of decisive western pressure, Eastern Ghouta appears on course to fall to pro-government forces.
“It’s inevitable. The strategy of bombardment is designed for only one result, which is to take back Ghouta,” Michael Stephens, of the think tank Royal United Services Institute in London, told The National.
“This is certain to happen.”
The Jaish Al Islam opposition group said its fighters had withdrawn from two areas, one of them in Al Shayfouniya, due to intense bombardment. It accused Mr Al Assad and Russia of waging a “scorched earth” campaign.
A news service run by Hezbollah meanwhile named three other areas it said the Syrian army had captured at the eastern and south-eastern rim of the rebel enclave.
A pro-government commander said Damascus-aligned forces aimed to advance into Eastern Ghouta one “bite” at a time.
“What is happening at present is biting and taking some villages from the eastern side,” the commander said.
Mr Al Assad’s forces have been attacking opposition fighters in the Maraj area of Ghouta for almost two weeks.
The Observatory on Friday said they had captured two villages in addition to hills and farmland, while the commander said government fighters had taken some villages in the Maraj area.
Pro-government forces had also made notable advances on the western edge of the rebel enclave at Harasta, he said. The Observatory said government fighters had seized a group of buildings in that area.
With the reported death toll in Eastern Ghouta exceeding 670 since the air bombardment started on February 13, the US on Friday told the regime that it “will not tolerate the atrocities”, and called on Russia to immediately uphold a ceasefire all over Syria.
The White House, after US President Donald Trump’s calls to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, on Friday stressed the urgency of the situation in Syria.
The leaders agreed that “the Syrian regime, and its Russian and Iranian supporters should immediately and fully implement UN Security Council Resolution 2401”, the White House said, calling for an immediate ceasefire across Syria.
It addressed Moscow directly, calling for a halt of its bombing in Eastern Ghouta and to pressure “the Assad regime to halt offensive operations against civilian areas, and to hold Syria accountable for the deteriorating human rights conditions caused in part by the Assad regime’s continued use of chemical weapons, attacks on civilians and blocking of humanitarian aid”.
“The US will not tolerate the atrocities of the Assad regime,” the White House said.
Responding to comments made on Thursday by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the three leaders said they “shared their serious concerns over Putin’s recent statements on nuclear weapons development, which they agreed detract from productive discussion of a range of issues between Russia and the West”.
Mr Trump’s audience is “not Assad but Putin”, said Nicholas Heras, who studies Syria at the Centre for New American Security.
The US president is “putting Russia on notice”, Mr Heras said. “He is reacting viscerally to the footage coming out of Eastern Ghouta.”