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Assad's forces make further gains around Damascus

14 November 2013 02:17 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad captured the southern Damascus suburb of Hujaira on Wednesday, part of a broader advance that has brought him major gains south of the capital before proposed international peace talks, APA reports quoting Reuters.

Syrian state television and al-Manar, the channel of the Lebanese group Hezbollah whose fighters helped drive rebels out Hujaira, broadcast live footage showing soldiers in control of otherwise empty streets flanked by shelled buildings and ruins.

"Southern districts that have been under rebel control for more than a year are falling one by one," Damascus-based activist Rami al-Sayyed said, referring to gains by Assad's forces around the capital.

The capture of Hujaira came a day after Islamist rebels in Aleppo declared an emergency and summoned all fighters to confront Assad's forces who have taken towns to the southeast of the contested northern city and also challenged rebel control in the center of Aleppo itself.

Since September's deal between the United States and Russia to eliminate Syrian chemical weapons averted the threat of Western attack, Assad's forces have also consolidated control around other cities along Syria's north-south highway such as Deraa and Homs.

Large, mostly rural and desert, regions remain under the control of rebel brigades, mainly in the eastern Syria and in the countryside bordering Turkey.

Assad's gains put him in an increasingly secure position ahead of proposed - but long delayed - peace talks in Geneva aimed at finding a political solution to the 2-1/2 year civil war. Syrian authorities have scoffed at suggestions he should hand power to a transitional government.