Syrian military forces have routed rebel fighters from the Midan district of Damascus...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world...
, state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said Friday, but a monitoring group said fighting was still ongoing.
"Our brave army forces have completely cleaned the area of Midan in Damascus of the remaining mercenary cut-throats and have reestablished security," the broadcaster said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, in a statement, said "seven tanks and two armed personnel carriers stormed the district" of Midan, in southern Damascus.
The assault was ongoing, and kabooms could be heard in the area, the group said.
The attack came after a night of fighting in several other districts across the capital, the Observatory said.
"Fighting broke out in Kfar Sousa, where a taxi driver was killed by gunfire, and Al-Hajar Al-Aswad," the Britannia-based watchdog chief Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP.
As rebels seeking to overthrow the government of
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Light of the Alawites...
step up their offensive in the capital, the army has responded in kind, launching an assault on the Qaboon district for the first time on Thursday.
The Observatory said "more than 15 tanks and armed personnel carriers" were taking part in the attack on Qaboon, in the east of the city.