Assad's Army plans to recapture Tamico as Damascus districts fall one by one

Zaman Alwasl sources assured that mass mobilization is taking place by Assad army near al-Maliha town in step to recapture the main medicine stores- Tamico- after two weeks of being under rebels control.

Forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad captured the southern Damascus suburb of Hujaira  Yesterday, part of a broader advance that has brought him major gains south of the capital before proposed international peace talks.

The capture of Hujaira came a day after Islamist rebels in Aleppo declared an emergency and summoned all fighters to confront Assad's forces who have taken towns to the southeast of the contested northern city and also challenged rebel control in the center of Aleppo itself, Reuters reported.

Large, mostly rural and desert, regions remain under the control of rebel brigades, mainly in the eastern Syria and in the countryside bordering Turkey.

Assad's gains put him in an increasingly secure position ahead of proposed - but long delayed - peace talks in Geneva aimed at finding a political solution to the 2-1/2 year civil war. Syrian authorities have scoffed at suggestions he should hand power to a transitional government.

Assad's military resurgence this year has relied to a great extent on support from Shi'ite Iranand fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iraqi militias, some of them based around a Shi'ite shrine southeast of Damascus.

They have helped turn the tide against the Sunni Muslim rebels, whose ranks are increasingly dominated by Islamist fighters and al Qaeda-linked foreign jihadists.

"In the last few months Assad has been increasingly leaving the fighting in the urban areas, especially Damascus and its environs, to his Shi'ite allies," a Middle East security official said.

"The capture of Hujaira is typical. Syrian army tanks and artillery level the area. The Iraqis and Hezbollah advance and do the fighting. Assad's troops then enter the area and pose for cameras," he added.

Hezbollah and its patron Iran do not comment on their operations in Syria.

Sayyed, the activist in Damascus, said fighters from the Qatar-backed Ahfad al-Rasul brigade as well as al Qaeda affiliates al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, withdrew from Hujaira to Hajar al-Aswad, a dense neighborhood closer to the center of capital, after being pounded by artillery and air strikes for weeks.

"There is no unified command and morale has been hit. Hajar al-Aswad and a series of towns in the hands of the resistance in the south and southwest edge of Damascus are now exposed," he said.

Rebel sources in Hajar al-Aswad said the fall of Hujaira robs rebels of urban cover but said their defenses in besieged districts closer to the heart of Damascus were solid.

(With Reuters)