More than 500 Shiite militants have been killed in a month of fierce fighting that raged on the outskirts of Mleiha city, east Damascus as rebels tried to defend the town against brutal shelling of Bashar al-Assad’s forces and to break the seven-month siege, rebels say.
A well-informed source from the key Islamist rebel group, Islam Army, based in eastern Ghouta, said 500 militants of Shiite militias had been killed in the last thirty days.
The source also reported a new Shiite group called ‘Assadullah Brigade’ had joined Assad’s forces in the offensive on the Mleiha and most towns of Eastern Ghouta.
Assad's army backed by Hezbollah and Iraqi militias pressed a campaign to take control of the opposition-held town, which like much of the Eastern Ghouta area east of Damascus has been under army siege for nearly seven months.
Mleiha is strategically located near regime-held Jaramana, which frequently comes under rebel shelling.
The army's campaign to crush rebel bastions in the Eastern Ghouta area began in March 2013, and its troops blockaded the area completely in October.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians are still living in the Eastern Ghouta area, suffering from severe food shortages in many towns and villages, as well as bearing the brunt of daily shelling.
Syria's three-year civil war has
killed more than 150,000 people, a third of them civilians, and caused millions
to flee. With agencies
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