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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Battles on 2 fronts as Syria closes out another violent year
2018-01-01
[ARABNEWS] Government forces battled with rebels and al-Qaeda faceless myrmidons on two fronts in Syria on Sunday as the country prepared to close out another violent year since the country descended into civil war in 2011.

Rebels supported by an al-Qaeda-linked cell renewed their assault against pro-government forces that have been holding a vast pocket of the Damascus suburbs under siege, said the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. A second front between many of the same groups saw fresh fighting in northwest Syria, along the border between Idlib and Hama provinces, according to the Observatory and Syrian military media.

The fighting outside Damascus was concentrated around the contested town of Harasta and a nearby military installation. The Death Eaters flanked the installation on Sunday, trapping an unknown number of pro-government forces inside, reported the Observatory. The local, activist-run Ghouta Media Center reported fierce festivities and dense government Arclight airstrikes.

Twenty-one soldiers and 26 rebels and al-Qaeda gunnies were killed in two days of festivities, according to the Observatory’s director, Rami Abdurrahman.

Rebels first attacked the installation seven weeks ago. The government responded with waves of indiscriminate air strikes and artillery attacks that killed more than 250 civilians in what are called the eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus, which are still under rebel control.

The Syrian Civil Defense search-and-rescue group, also known as the White Helmets, said shelling and rocket fire killed 19 people in eastern Ghouta on Saturday, one day after medical evacuations were completed to save the lives of 29 others. The Red Thingy and Red Islamic Thingy took three days to evacuate 29 patients from the besieged suburbs to receive urgent medical care at government hospitals in Damascus.
Posted by:Fred

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