EA sources confirm reports, which broke Sunday night, that insurgents have been pursuing a significant attack in Damascus for days.
Moving from positions in Jobar in the northeast of the capital, the opposition fighters advanced on Abbasiyeen Square. Heavy regime losses are reported, with the insurgents threatening to move on central Damascus.
EA sources characterize the offensive, which has been well-prepared, as “steady advances, step by step, building by building and not more than 8 at a time”.
A concerned regime has “tried everything to stop the rebels, bombarding at the front and behind, to no avail so far”. Civilians have been evacuated, and a large complex of the Mukhabarat, Syria’s security service, has been reinforced. According to sources, the Syrian military sought a local ceasefire.
Buses from the Abasyeen bus station seem to have relocated to Barzeh, #Damascus pic.twitter.com/fP4dtj7PHX
— Paradoxy (@Paradoxy13) July 21, 2014
An account linked to General Salim Idriss, the former head of the Free Syrian Army, circulated the news on Twitter last night:
We have successfully made an advance from the Ghouta areas into Abasiyeen square. The Syrian regime are calling for negotiations #Damascus
— Gen. Salim Idriss (@Gen_Idriss) July 20, 2014
Footage from the insurgent faction Ajnad al-Sham of clashes over the weekend:
An insurgent attack on a checkpoint about a kilometer east of Abbasiyeen Square:
Footage has been posted of the remains of a detainee, hands and neck bound, at a checkpoint seized in the opposition advance.
State news agency SANA has said nothing of the insurgent attacks, claiming instead, “Dens for terrorists were destroyed with the weapons and ammunitions inside in a string of operations in the Jobar neighborhood.”
EA sources say the insurgents are unlikely to hold any territory; however, the attacks are drawing in regime forces from other areas of Syria.
One source says, “It’s not the final push, just a battle in which the regime loses troops, material, and ground.”
