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Syrian Army cuts strategic supply road for rebel forces in East Ghouta
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) continued their large-scale advance in the East Ghouta region of rural Damascus on Sunday, targeting the Islamist rebel defenses near the villages of Autaya and Nashabiyah.

Led by the 105th Brigade of the Elite Republican Guard and Paleostine Liberation Army (PLA), the Syrian Arab Army managed to cut Jaish al-Islam
...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful...
's most important supply line to the village of Nashabiyah after an intense battle on Sunday that stretched for several hours.

According to an al-Masdar field correspondent, the Syrian Arab Army seized more than 200 meters of territory near Nashabiyah on Sunday, killing and wounding over 20 enemy combatants in the process of their advance.

With Jaish al-Islam's supply to Nashabiyah cutoff, the Syrian Arab Army will take the opportunity to storm the village and seize the remaining farms near the small town of Autaya.


Posted by: Fred 2017-01-16
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=478616