Syrian army controls capital after ousting IS

BEIRUT: The Syrian army has restored control over all areas surrounding the capital Damascus for the first time since early in the seven-year-old war, after pushing IS militants out of a south Damascus pocket, the military said. Pro-Syrian government forces have been battling for weeks to recover Al Hajar al Aswad district and the adjacent Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp from IS since driving rebels from Eastern Ghouta in April. In a televised statement, Syria’s army high command said Al Hajar al Aswad and Yarmouk had been cleared of militants. “Damascus and its surroundings and Damascus countryside and its villages are completely secure areas,” the statement said, adding that the army would continue to fight “terrorism” across Syria.

With its complete capture of the environs of the capital, the government of President Bashar al Assad is now in by far its strongest position since the early days of the war, which has killed more than half a million people and driven more than half the population from its homes since 2011. Rebels now mainly control just two large areas in the northwest and southwest near borders with Turkey and Jordan. Turkey and the United States also have presences in parts of Syria outside government control. The IS, which was driven from most of the Euphrates River valley last year, now controls only two besieged desert areas in eastern Syria. Another insurgent group that has pledged loyalty to it holds a small enclave in the southwest.