Beirut, Feb 19 (TNS): Syrian forces readied for a ground offensive against the rebel-held enclave outside Damascus.
President Bashar al-Assad has in recent days been sending reinforcements from across the country to the edge of Eastern Ghouta, besieged by regime troops since 2013. The reinforcements are complete; the attack is just waiting for a green light,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. On Sunday, more than 260 rockets, heavy artillery fire, and air strikes slammed into several towns in Eastern Ghouta, The bombardment left at least 14 civilians dead, including four children, and dozens more people wounded. The last rebel bastion near Damascus, Eastern Ghouta is held by two main Islamist factions, Jaish al-Islam and Faylaq al-Rahman, although jihadists also have a foothold there. The regime is keen to regain control of the area to halt the deadly salvo of rockets and mortars that those factions have fired on the capital. Residents were already starting to pack bags and rent rooms outside the city in anticipation of an operation now seen as imminent. One of them said he was planning to temporarily move his parents out of their home in the capitals east, which is regularly hit in rebel shelling. I would rather drop my parents off in our village in Wadih al-Qalaa,” in the government-controlled province of Latakia, said 29-year-old Karim.
According to the Observatory, the regime began dispatching military reinforcements to Eastern Ghouta on February 5, the same day it launched a fierce five-day bombing campaign on the region. Air strikes have left around 250 civilians dead, with retaliatory rocket fire on Damascus killing about 20, the monitor said. Abdel Rahman said negotiations with Russian involvement were taking place for the evacuation of jihadist faction Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), whose footprint in Ghouta is limited but includes areas directly adjacent to Damascus.
