BEIRUT: A promised rebel barrage of rockets on Damascus was apparently called off Wednesday when Syrian regime troops staged a surprise attack on the edge of the capital, as rebel groups reclaimed the area after fierce clashes.

The Islam Army militia, based in the Ghouta suburbs, had announced the day before that the capital was now a “military zone” and advised residents to avoid approaching regime “centers, checkpoints and vehicles.”

But instead of a rebel barrage on Damascus, regime forces launched a surprise dawn attack in the eastern suburbs of Jobar and Douma, according to an anti-regime activist based outside the capital.

“The regime forces took a number of strategic areas in Jobar and captured six Free Syrian Army rebels, but the rebels later recovered the territory and killed 15 troops,” the activist said.

Other sources, aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood, said the rebels suffered as many as 12 fatalities in the battle.

The Ajnad al-Sham militia and the FSA-aligned Rahman Legion were involved in the clashes, while the Islam Army was busy clashing with regime troops near Douma, the stronghold of Islam Army leader Zahran Alloush.

Regime aircraft pounded Douma with six airstrikes which left an unspecified number of people wounded, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, which also reported the clashes in Jobar.

Pro-opposition media outlets said the airstrikes in Jobar wounded dozens of people, mainly civilians, although no fatalities were reported.

Alloush had threatened to retaliate in the capital, largely spared from military actions during the course of the war, after a series of regime airstrikes on Douma and other parts of the Ghouta.

One mortar bomb strike was reported near Douma in a regime-held suburb.

It hit a work crew conducting repairs on the electricity network and seriously wounded the entire group of workers, according to a Facebook page that is devoted to tracking mortar bomb attacks in Damascus.

It said the sound of the battles raging in eastern parts of Damascus was heard throughout the day, as the capital was spared the promised barrage of rocket fire and mortar bombs.

State news agency SANA said regime troops killed “dozens of terrorists” in the battles in Douma and Jobar, as well as in areas of the mountainous Qalamoun region bordering Lebanon.

Elsewhere, fierce clashes pitting regime troops and paramilitary allies against rebel groups raged in the Mayasar outskirts of Aleppo, where gains and losses by the warring sides have remained fluid in recent days.

And near the border with Turkey, Syrian Kurdish forces made fresh advances near the flashpoint town of Ain al-Arab, bringing the number of villages they have recaptured from ISIS to 50, the Observatory said.

It said Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia and allied FSA fighters have been advancing “speedily” over the past week. “As soon as the YPG enters into a village, ISIS withdraws its fighters.”

According to the Pentagon, coalition warplanes carried out 11 strikes against ISIS positions in the area from Tuesday to Wednesday morning.