INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the army has made strong advances (AFP)Beirut: The Syrian army
and its allies engaged in a fierce battle today with ISIS terrorists in an enclave south of Damascus held by the ISIS
Reuters witnesses, a war monitor and state television reported intense fighting including artillery bombardment and small arms fire.The army
had made broad advances, said state television
The monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said it had gained control of several buildings in the densely built-up area.Footage
on state TV showed tanks rolling across an open area of fields to the edge of the enclave, which includes parts of al-Qadam district,
al-Hajar al-Aswad and the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp.It showed uniformed soldiers moving through battered streets with dense clouds of
black smoke overhead, while the whizz and crash of artillery fire, the rattle of small arms fire and deep echoing blasts could all be
heard.Syrian President Bashar al-Assad this month defeated terrorists in their biggest stronghold near Damascus in eastern Ghouta, and has
since then focused on ending resistance in several smaller pockets near the Syrian capital.ISIS lost most of its territory in Syria last
year in the face of two rapid offensives, one by the Syrian army backed by Russia and Iran, and the other by an alliance of Kurdish and Arab
militias backed by the United States.It has held onto some areas of desert in eastern Syria, as well as to the pocket in south Damascus and
one other area by the borders with Jordan and Israel which is held by a group that has pledged allegiance to it.Russia's entry into the war
in 2015 has propelled Assad to a succession of victories that have dashed any terrorist's hopes of ousting him militarily, but terror groups
still hold large swathes of northwest and southwest Syria.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday after meeting in Moscow
with his counterparts from Turkey and Iran that the three countries need to help Syria's government clear its country of terrorists.Turkish
Foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu meanwhile said Russia, Iran and Turkey needed to work with the United Nations to ensure the legitimacy of
any political solution in Syria as any military solution would be illegal and unsustainable.© Thomson Reuters 2018
