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Syria rebels launch fresh assault on east Damascus

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BATTLE FOR POWER: Tuesday’s violence was 2nd wave of an assault -


Damascus: Rebels and extremists launched a fresh assault on east Damascus on Tuesday, just two days before another round of UN-backed peace talks were set to get underway in Switzerland.


Clashes raged between regime forces on one side and opposition fighters and allied extremists from the Fateh al Sham Front, formerly Al Qaeda’s branch in the war-ravaged country.


The renewed fighting in Damascus came two days after Syrian government forces repelled the largest rebel incursion into the capital in years.


An AFP journalist in east Damascus reported a large explosion at sunrise Tuesday followed by fierce clashes, shelling and government air strikes on opposition positions.


Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the blast was likely caused by a rebel car bomb attack on a regime position between Jobar and Qabun districts.


Plumes of dark smoke could be seen rising from eastern neighbourhoods. The official SANA news agency said 12 people were wounded in rebel shelling.


“The Syrian army is facing attempts to advance by terrorist groups... north of Jobar and is surrounding them,” it reported.


Rebels hold half of the eastern neighbourhood of Jobar, a few kilometres from the city centre, and are seeking to link it to the besieged northern district of Qabun.


“Our windows and doors rattle with each bombardment,” Damascus resident Lamis, 28, said.


“I’m frightened that these armed groups will advance further and I hope they will be stopped soon.”


Syria’s air force responded to the renewed rebel assault with raids on their positions while opposition fighters shelled the Abbasid and Tijara neighbourhoods near Jobar, the Observatory’s Abdel Rahman said.


The Faylaq al Rahman rebel group and the Fateh al Sham Front — known as Al Nusra Front before it renounced its ties to Al Qaeda — have a presence in Jobar.


Faylaq al Rahman announced “the second stage of the battle” for eastern areas of the capital, in a statement issued Tuesday.


In the afternoon, Ahrar al Sham — an allied extremist faction — said its fighters had seized a textile factory between Qabun and Jobar.


In addition to controlling half of Jobar and most of Qabun, rebels and their allies also hold positions in the Damascus districts of Tishreen and Barzeh in the north, as well as Tadamun in the south.


Tuesday’s violence was the second wave of an assault that began at the weekend and saw rebels and allied fighters initially score gains in Jobar, even briefly advancing into Abbasid Square — two kilometres from Damascus’ Old City — for the first time in two years.


But government loyalists drove them back by nightfall and unleashed fierce bombing, the Observatory said, before calm was restored on Monday afternoon in eastern Damascus where shops reopened and cars returned to the roads. Clashes on Sunday and Monday killed at least 72 people, including 38 government force members and 34 rebels and extremists, according to the Observatory. — AFP


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