(Zaman Al Wasl)- Well-informed sources said Russia had supplied the regime forces with urgent shipments of weapons and air bombs a day before regime forces launched an all-out offensive to seize the eastern enclave of Damascus.
Most of ammunition and weapons were delivered to Al-Dumayr military airport, 30 miles (45 km) east of the capital and located at the eastern gate of embattled Ghouta suburbs.
The regime army's backed by allied militias has been mobilizing troops to launch a ground offensive since the aerial bombing has killed at least 250 in the past 72 hours and wounded more than 1000 people.
Sources told Zaman al-Wasl that military vehicles loaded with weapons, shells, missiles reached the military airports of Al-Dumayr, Sayqal (Known as la-Seen), Khalkhalah, and al-Nasiriyah on Saturday coming from Tartus airport.
The shipments included high-explosive bombs, type "FAB" anti-immunization of caliber (100-120), caliber (250, and caliber (500).
Its also included high explosive (OFAB) fragmentation bombs that can penetrate high-luminous shields which had been used against civilians in the Eastern Ghouta, (CBK) cluster bombs of (Type 250, 500), Pyrolysis and Phosphorus bombs.
Moscow confirmed it support the Assad forces in Eastern Ghouta's attack. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov did not conceal Assad's intention and his allies to repeat the scenario of Aleppo in the eastern region of Damascus in a recent press statement.
Meanwhile, rebels have clung on to their Eastern Ghouta.
Rebel control is now divided between two groups: Jaish al-Islam and Failaq al-Rahman, both of which have pledged to mount a fierce defense against a regime assault.
The fighters have already survived five years of bombardment and siege, drawing on their local roots and smuggling tunnels.
“They are opposition organizations that have a social, political, economic and military approach to interacting with the population of Ghouta,” Nicholas Heras of the Center for New American Security said.
To pull out those roots, the regime imposed a siege on the region in 2013 in what Heras called a “strategy of collective punishment.”
That encirclement made food, medicine, and other daily goods nearly impossible to access for Eastern Ghouta’s 400,000 residents.
“It is the regime saying to the people of Ghouta that their rebellion personally offended Assad’s regime,” Heras said.
Both Failaq al-Rahman and Jaish al-Islam are Islamist factions founded in 2013 that have joined in peace talks in Geneva and Astana.
But the pair have also clashed multiple times in a struggle for influence in rebel-held parts of Ghouta, which amount to a little more than 100 square kilometers.
Zaman Al Wasl
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