Fighting breaks out for the first time between Al-Rahman Corps and Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham in the Eastern Ghouta

Rif Dimashq Province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: clashes broke out after midnight between Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham on one hand and Al-Rahman Corps on the other as a result of a dispute between them over a position in Hazza area in the Eastern Ghouta, causing the injury of ten at both sides. This is considered the first armed fighting between both parties and it coincided with the first day of the truce implementation in the Eastern Ghouta, which came into force yesterday afternoon, Saturday the 22nd of July 2017. Meanwhile, battles continue between the regime forces and their allied militiamen and Lebanese Hezbollah on one hand and the Islamic factions and Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham on the other in areas in the Flyta barrens and the highlands and hills adjacent to the Syrian-Lebanese border. Clashes were accompanied by an intensive shelling by the regime forces on areas of clashes.

The SOHR published the day before yesterday that after preparations that lasted for days in the Western Qalamoun Mountains and its barrens, the regime forces supported by the Lebanese Hezbollah and their allied militiamen – of Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities – started its military operation in the Flyta barrens adjacent to the Syrian-Lebanese border. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights learned then that violent clashes were taking place between the Islamic factions and Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham on one hand and the regime forces and their allied militiamen and the Lebanese Hezbollah on the other, amid intense shelling by the latter since the dawn of Friday, the 21st of July 2017, on areas controlled by the factions. Reliable sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory that the regime forces and Hezbollah were able to achieve their first advancement by taking control of a hill and points in the Flyta barrens, as part of an attempt to achieve a greater advancement by intensifying the shelling and forcing the factions to withdraw from this area, which is under the control of the factions, and the area of which is no more than 40 square kilometers but it is adjacent to an area controlled by the “Islamic State” organization of approximately 120 square kilometers. Cross-sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that the operation is being carried out simultaneously within the Syrian territories and at the Lebanese side, in an attempt to force the factions to surrender or fight to the end, for there is no other destination to which they can withdraw. This military operation is also expected to continue and expand to areas controlled by the “Islamic State” organization on the border with the Lebanese Arsal. And if the regime forces and Hezbollah managed to take control of these areas, then they would have restored the entire border between Lebanon and the Western Qalamoun and Al-Zabadani plain up to the border with Al-Sheikh Mountain.