The general conducted "a tour of Khaldiyeh, where he visited the army units that had restored security and stability in the neighborhood," SANA said.The army's takeover of Khaldiyeh, in the central city of Homs, came after an intense month-long campaign of daily air and artillery shellings.
Like other districts under rebel control in Homs, Khaldiyeh had been under a suffocating army siege for more than a year.
The army's takeover of Khaldiyeh was its second military success since June when it captured the rebel-held town of Qusayr in Homs province with help from Hizbullah.
Freij's visit comes a day after Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now...
said the country's crisis could only be solved by "striking terror with an iron fist".
Homs city, dubbed by rebels the "capital of the revolution", straddles a route linking Damascus to the Mediterranean coast and the Alawite hinterland of Assad's Alawite minority community.