Last hot battle in Syrian capital against IS group

DAMASCUS - The rattling sound of shelling has a rhythm now south of the capital Damascus, as Syrian army is now completely focusing on eradicating the Islamic State (IS) from areas they control near Damascus and this battle will turn the page of war in Damascus to a peaceful and brighter one.

The artillery shelling as well as the tank fire and airstrikes have intensified on Tuesday, sending a rattling sound that ends with a huge plumes of smoke rising from the targeted areas of Hajar al-Aswad and the nearby Yarmouk Camp area, both under IS control, and considered to be the last areas out of the government forces in Damascus and its countryside.

In a trip to the outskirts of al-Qadam neighbourhood in the south of Damascus, parts of which are under IS control, reporters including Xinhua were taken to the frontline where can hear the shelling and see the action on the ground.

Tanks were rolling as warplanes roared in the sky hitting the IS positions and providing a fire cover for the infantry units moving forward on the ground toward the positions of that terror-designated group.

The destruction in the Hajar al-Aswad and nearby areas has filled the horizon and the smoke rising from those areas was a sign of the ferocity of the battles that have been raging for six days.

The War Media, the media wing of the Syrian army and its allies, said that the Syrian army is carrying out precise airstrikes and artillery fire on the positions of IS in the northwestern and southwestern parts of Yarmouk Camp and Hajar al-Aswad.

A military source told Xinhua that the military offensive on IS will continue until its fully eradicating from southern Damascus.

The Syrian army turned the focus on Hajar al-Aswad and the Yarmouk Camp, a large area where Syrians and Palestinian refugees have lived, after capturing the entire Eastern Ghouta countryside east of Damascus, as well as the eastern part of Qalamoun region after the rebels withdrew to northern Syria areas this month.

Now, the IS-held pockets south of Damascus, as well as a few areas under the al-Qaida-linked groups' control, are all that left for Damascus to be completely safe and free of any armed insurgency and terror groups.

Ahead of the beginning of the battle against IS, the terror group was offered a deal to evacuate to the remote part of the Syrian desert as the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, which controls nearby areas such as Babila and Yalada and surroundings were to evacuate to rebel-held areas in the northwestern province of Idlib.

But the IS militants thwarted the deal of evacuation, which sparked the flare of war again, and it's expected that after the defeat of IS, the al-Qaida-linked militants will be bused outside Babila and Yalda, both entwined with the Hajar al-Aswad and Yarmouk, to Idlib.

Afterwards, the entire capital will be free of rebels and the military operation is expected to move toward the southern province of Daraa, which is around 100 km from Damascus.

IS has lost its major stronghold late last year, with the Syrian army capturing the Deir al-Zour city in eastern Syria as well as large swathes of the Syrian desert near Iraqi border. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) also stripped IS of its de facto capital of Raqqa north of Syria.