Syrian army secures areas south of capital

BEIRUT – Fresh off their takeover of Syria’s eastern Ghouta enclave earlier this month, loyalist forces were poised Friday to subdue pockets south of Damascus held by Islamic State and rebel groups, Syrian pro-government media and activists said.

The move is part of a larger bid to secure the capital, the seat of power of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Syrian state TV broadcast images of the government assault targeting an arc of four militant-held areas ringing Damascus’ southern flank, including the Yarkmouk camp, once home to the world’s largest Palestinian refugee camp.

The 6-square-mile swath of territory is home to approximately 12,200 Palestinian refugees, according to estimates from the U.N.’S Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, or UNRWA.

The onslaught followed days of army units and pro-government irregulars mobilizing from as far as the northern city of Aleppo before massing south of the capital.

By Thursday, a deal giving the militants safe passage had broken down before Islamic State’s refusal to leave, activists said.

Syrian and Russian warplanes were soon crisscrossing Damascus’ skies on their way to bomb the rebel-held territories. They were joined by the pounding of artillery and rockets.

“The Syrian army is now smashing the defensive line of the armed terrorist groups and conducting attacks inside,” a state TV correspondent, using the government’s routine term for the opposition, said in a live broadcast Friday from what was said to be the outskirts of the Islamic State-held Al Hajar Al-aswad district.

As he spoke, the sound of sustained heavy machine gun fire could be heard. Smoke engulfed the area’s drab buildings before the camera focused on a slowgrowing yellow bloom of an explosion farther away.