(Zaman Al Wasl)- Hayat Tahrir al-Sham said it had killed 20 Palestinian fighters loyal to Bashar al-Assad in Yarmouk refugee camp as regime forces backed by heavy aerial campaign launched major offensive to uproot Daesh and former al-Qaeda group from southern neighborhoods of Damascus, activists said Friday.
The bombing on the Hajr al-Aswad neighborhood and Yarmouk Palestinian camp began on Thursday only hours after reports surfaced that Daesh (ISIS) militants would be given two days to leave.
Regime warplanes conducted more than 150 raids in the past 24 hours, according to local activists.
Local opposition activist Sami Dreid, in the nearby Yalda neighborhood, told AP that the militants were expected to relocate to Daesh-held territory in the east Syrian desert. He said it was not clear why the deal appeared to have fallen through.
ISIS still has a presence in Yarmouk, and the neighboring areas of Hajar al-Aswad, Tadamon and Qadam.
Amaq, the official news agency of ISIS, said Daesh had killed 10 troops on Friday.
The regime-run news agency SANA said militants will be given the option to stay and reconcile with the regime or leave on buses to Daesh-held territory in the eastern Syrian desert.
Yarmouk used to be the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, with a population of 160,000, but only a few thousand people remain inside the devastated area.
Well-informed sources told Zaman al-Wasl on Thursday that senior Daesh commanders had fled southern suburbs of Damascus.
Abu Naser al-Janadi, one of ISIS masterminds, has fled to southern Daraa province where an ISIS affiliated groups is still operating near the Israeli-Occupied Golan Heights. Abu Khaled al-Sharei, a 'jurist' in the radical group, was also escaped regime shelling to Daraa.
Sources said a smuggling network related to the Syrian regime and intelligence services has been facilitating the move of ISIS commanders.
Two more senior commanders left to the northern province of Idlib. They were identified as Khaled Barakat and Abu George al-Idlibi.
After fully retaking the Eastern Ghouta region on the edge of the capital, the regime has turned its attention to other areas across the country that still escape its control.
Among them are neighbourhoods in southern Damascus from which many civilians have fled but are still held by ISIS, including the Yarmouk area that hosts a Palestinian refugee camp. (With Agencies)
Zaman Al Wasl
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