A monitor said Tuesday three dozen pro-regime fighters were killed in a southern district of the capital as Daesh (ISIS) militants took control of it in a surprise nighttime attack.
There was no immediate comment from the regime on the report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which could not provide casualty figures for the militants.
"IS [Daesh] took full control of Qadam, and 36 government troops and loyalist fighters have been killed," the Britain-based monitoring group said.
Dozens more were wounded or captured, or are still missing in action, Observatory chief Rami Abdel-Rahman said.
Daesh launched the attack from positions it holds in the adjacent Hajar al-Aswad district, Abdel-Rahman told AFP.
"Regime forces are bringing reinforcements to the area around Qadam to try to retake it," he said.
Qadam lies in a southern part of Damascus and has for several years hosted a range of Islamist rebels and extremists, including Daesh and its arch-enemy, al-Qaeda's onetime Syrian branch Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
The Syrian REGIME has used both military pressure and negotiated settlements to try to clear the area.
Last week, hundreds of HTS fighters evacuated the district under a deal with Damascus that granted them and their family members safe passage, with most heading northwest to Idlib province.
Daesh militants have even agreed to evacuate the district in the past.
The militant group put out a statement late Monday saying it had captured most of Qadam, including areas "surrendered" to regime forces by HTS.
The district is smaller than and not connected to Eastern Ghouta, an area east of the capital which is home to hundreds of thousands of civilians and rebels.
The suspire attack has also followed negotiations between, the regime and ISIS to deport its militants to a territory at the edge of the Israeli-Occupied Golan Heights, sources told Zaman al-Wasl.
Yarmouk Basin, which is under the control of Jaish Khaled Bin Walid, an ISIS affiliated group, was planned to be the last destination of ISIS fighters who based in southern Damascus.
The negotiations with Daesh faced logistic obstacles since the US-backed Southern Front surrounds the area in western Daraa countryside.
Jaish Khaled Bin Walid was formed in May 2016, and is an alliance of several jihadist groups, the largest of them the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade, which was listed by Washington as a terrorist group.
The Observatory said Jaish Khaled Bin Walid is estimated to have some 1,200 fighters, and controls territory, along the border with the Occupied Golan Heights.
The regime forces and Daesh fighters on Saturday agreed to cease fighting after four days of clashes.
The Assad army ordered ISIS to retreat from al-Qadam to the adjacent neighborhood of al-Hajar al-Aswad, four days after rebels evacuated the district to northern Idlib province.
Syria's regime has managed to retake several areas around Damascus with a combination of evacuations and "reconciliation" deals that see rebelling towns brought back under regime control.
The regime is waging a fierce air and ground offensive but also pursuing talks with armed groups still holding the rump of the rebel enclave.
More regime troops were killed in clashes between regime forces and pro-militia in the eastern countryside of Damascus, activists told Zaman al-Wasl on Monday.
The regime forces, in response, have arrested Mahmoud Afifa, commander of the militia and 12 comrades in an ambush near the town of Qutaifa. (Zaman Al Wasl, AFP)
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