Syrian Jets Bomb Opposition Neighborhoods East of Damascus

Syrian government fighter jets bombed rebel positions on the outskirts of Damascus on Wednesday in an attempt to push established opposition forces outside the country’s capital, a military source told Agence France-Presse.

“The army began a military operation this morning with the aim of expanding a security zone around areas controlled [by the government]” said the source.

“It began in Jobar with limited, precise and effective operations against lines of defense used by armed groups to observe the rest of the capital,” according to the source, saying that “Syrian aircraft are in action but not Russian ones.”

The Jobar neighborhood in eastern Damascus has been a combat zone for nearly two years now, and virtually all of the area’s original inhabitants have fled as fighting between opposition groups and the Syrian army steadily destroyed the suburb.

Jobar is a strategic area as it sits near a roundabout that provides direct access to the center of Damascus and also to Eastern Ghouta, another rebel-held area to the east of the capital.

Syrian government forces have tried several times to retake the Jobar area.

ISIS Fights Rebels in Aleppo as Assad Prepares Offensive

Militants belonging to the Islamic State group battled with rival rebel factions on Wednesday in areas north of the city of Aleppo, in an area in which the Syrian army, backed by troops from Iran and Hezbollah on the ground and Russian jets up above, is preparing an offensive of its own.

A rebel fighter told Reuters that Islamic State militants briefly took control of parts of the towns of Ahras and Tel Jabin, around eight miles north of Aleppo, before they were pushed back by other opposition groups.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported heavy fighting also took place between the Islamic State and government forces that were trying to advance toward a state air base in Aleppo currently besieged by the jihadist group.

A team of Iranian lawmakers arrived to Damascus on Wednesday for an official visit, just two days after two senior Revolutionary Guard officers were in battle with the Islamic State, signaling an increased Iranian involvement on the ground in Syria.

The Syrian army and its allies have been battling rebels in the northern Hama province as well as in Idlib and Latakia over the past two weeks, in an attempt to regain territory lost to rebel forces over the summer.

The offensive, which has been supported by two weeks of Russian airstrikes, has allowed forces loyal to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to recapture a number of towns in Hama and Latakia, but an increase in foreign military support to opposition forces has significantly slowed Assad’s progress.

Iran Sends Troops to Syria as Conflict Escalates on All Sides

Hundreds of Iranian troops have been deployed to northern and central Syria, the Washington Post reports, in a striking escalation of Tehran’s involvement in Syria’s civil war.

The troops will join fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah in an offensive alongside Assad’s army and Russian airstrikes that will attempt to seize key areas from opposition forces.

Syrian activists and a regional official told the Post on Wednesday that the arrival of a significant number of Iranian troops reveals the underlying goals of Russia’s recent military intervention, suggesting that the main goal for the time being is to bolster the beleaguered Assad. Combating the Islamic State, they said, would only come as a secondary goal.

Russia and Iran’s growing involvement inside Syria will almost certainly increase pressure and military support for Western-backed opposition forces, which will in turn further intensify fighting on the ground. This fighting would displace even more civilians, possibly leading to yet another wave of refugees streaming out of the war-torn country.

Top Image: In this photo taken on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2015, Syrian army personnel fire a machine gun in Latakia province, about 12 miles from the border with Turkey. Backed by Russian airstrikes, the Syrian army has launched an offensive in central and northwestern regions. (Alexander Kots/Komsomolskaya Pravda via AP)

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