(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least ten fighters from Jaish al-Islam, including commanders, have been killed in barrel bombs attack on southern neighborhoods of Damascus, local reporter said Tuesday.
The General commander of Jaish al-Islam, Abu al-Brara’, was wounded in the attack on Yalda, last rebels stronghold in the capital.
Local activists said the regime warplanes have carried out more than 500 raids in a week of major ground and aerial offensive to end rebels and hardline groups presence south of Damascus.
Bashar Assad, backed by Iran and Russia, is seeking to crush the last few besieged rebel enclaves, building on the defeat of rebels in the eastern Ghouta region, which was the rebels' last major stronghold near the capital.
The regime's state television claims they're aiming to destroy dug out trenches and tunnels in the Hajar al-Aswad neighborhood and the nearby Palestinian refugee camp of Yamouk, mostly controlled by IS.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said it’s deeply concerned for civilians in the area.
It's on the same day as the EU and UN meet in Brussels to discuss possible resolutions to the on-going Syrian civil war crisis, according to Euronews.
More than 30 regime forces have been killed fighting Daesh (ISIS) in Yarmouk camp and al-Hajer al-Aswad and ten more have been killed by Tahrir al-Sham, formerly known as Nusra Front.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the assault has also left 12 civilians dead, including women and children.
Yarmouk was once a densely populated and thriving district of the capital, but it has been ravaged by violence since Syria's conflict broke out in 2011.
The U.N.'s Palestinian refugee agency said the bombardment has put the last operating hospital in Yarmouk out of service and displaced most of the camp's 6,000 remaining civilians.
Syria's regime imposed a crippling siege on it in 2012, and fighting has also broken out between rebels and rival militants.
In 2015, Daesh overran most of Yarmouk, and other rebels and militants, including from Al-Qaeda's former affiliate, agreed to withdraw just a few weeks ago.
Fateh al-Intifada, a pro-regime Palestinian paramilitary group, mourned dozen of fighters said former al-Qaeda group had killed them.
Anti-Assad rebels hold a chunk of territory in the southwest and the northwest, and Kurdish-led militias, backed by the United States, controls an expanse of northern and eastern Syria. (Zaman Al Wasl, Agencies)
Zaman Al Wasl
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