Army mounts drive to oust rebels from Damascus

BEIRUT — Backed by Russian air power and allied militiamen on the ground, Syrian troops have recaptured entire cities from rebels and Islamic State group extremists in the past year, including the key cities of Aleppo, Homs and Palmyra.

Yet for the past three years, President Bashar Assad’s forces have been unable to free opposition-held neighborhoods of the capital Damascus, where rebel fighters have built a labyrinth of underground tunnels, beyond the reach of air strikes and connected to opposition-held suburbs.

A weeks-long push to expand the security belt around Assad’s seat of power, however, shows a new determination to retake the three areas north and northeast of the capital partially held by rebels — a long-festering thorn in the government’s side.

The offensive is the strongest in years, with warplanes reportedly conducting more than 70 air strikes in one day and using surface-to-surface missiles in some of the deadliest attacks in weeks.

“The regime is pushing with all the powers it has,” said Ahmad Mahmoud, an opposition activist based in a rebel-held eastern suburb of Damascus.

The Damascus neighborhoods of Barzeh, Qaboun, and Jobar form an arc from the northern to eastern edge of Damascus. They are partially held by rebels and are often used to fire mortar shells into the metropolis and stage hitand-run attacks, a constant threat and reminder that rebels can disrupt life in the city that has escaped much of the destruction and violence of other areas.

Qaboun and Barzeh had witnessed relative calm since 2014 thanks to a reconciliation deal between rebels and the government. During that period, vegetables and daily products were allowed out of the neighborhoods into Damascus and in return the government allowed food and other products into the neighborhoods.

That allowed government troops to turn their attention elsewhere and in December government forces and their allies captured rebel-held eastern neighborhoods of the northern city of Aleppo, marking Assad’s biggest victory of the six-year war. Aleppo is Syria’s largest city and once commercial center.

In March, rebels began evacuating al-Waer, the last rebelheld neighborhood in the Homs, the country’s thirdlargest city, and more recently they evicted rebels from the Wadi Barada region northwest of Damascus.

The victories have freed thousands of troops and progovernment fighters. Opposition activists say that some of these troops will be used in the battle to capture the Damascus neighborhoods.