The regime forces renewed targeting areas controlled by Jaysh Al-Islam in Al-Marj area in the Eastern Ghouta

The SOHR learned the violent clashes are still ongoing in the southwestern Rif Dimashq of the capital Damascus, where the SOHR monitored ongoing violent clashes between the regime forces and their allied militiamen against the Islamic and rebel factions and Hayaat Tahrir Al-Sham. The clashes are concentrated in areas in the outskirts of Magher al-Meer town, which the regime forces are trying to reach, backed by cover of heavy artillery and missile shelling, while the clashes, which are taking place in the outskirts of Magher al-Meer town other areas hundreds of meters away from Beit Jenn Farm are accompanied by an exchange of shelling between the regime forces and the factions, which caused confirmed human losses in ranks of both parties.

The SOHR monitored yesterday that the regime forces managed to control parts of Tel Marwan southeast of Magher Al-Meer near Magher Al-Meer, while The regime forces managed to control Dahar Al-Zayat and Al-Mantar hill, near Magher Al-Meer, while the regime forces seek to tighten the noose more and more against the factions within the circle remained under the control of factions in the southwestern Rif Dimashq near the northern countryside of Quneitra and the Syrian –Lebanese borders, and the fighting caused today the death of 6 members of the regime forces including 2 officers, one of them is a colonel who is the head of the artillery branch, and the other officer is a major and the head of fire brigade in the seventh battalion of the regime forces, and fighters of the factions and Hayaat Tahrir Al-Sham were also killed and injured.

And the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented in early December 2017, that the southwestern Rif Dimashq witnessed the fall of a helicopter of the regime forces after being targeted by a guided missile, which killed its crew of 3 officers of the regime forces (a brigadier, a colonel and a major), while the escalation of the intensity of shelling comes as a continuation of the aerial bombardments which has almost ended its 11th consecutive week of intense artillery and aerial bombardment, where the helicopters have dropped during this period more than 800 barrel bombs on the southwestern of Rif Dimashq, along with hundreds of missiles believed to be ground-to-ground, hundreds of artillery, mortar and tank shells on villages, towns, farms and hills of the southwest of Rif Dimashq, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented the death of tens of fighters during the clashes, also tens of members of the regime forces were killed in the same clashes, and in early November the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights published that the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights received information from intersected sources that the regime forces are making military preparations to carry out a massive attack on the besieged southwest of Rif Dimashq, in order to control the areas that are controlled by the factions, and it is noteworthy that the preparations came after an attack that took place on the 3rd of November  2017, started by detonating a booby trapped vehicle in Hodr town, followed by a violent attack by the factions during which they managed to connect their controlled areas in southwest of Rif Dimashq with their controlled areas in the northern countryside of Quneitra, then after hours the regime forces broke that corridor and re-besieged the southwest of Rif Dimashq, where the violent clashes, the bombings and the accompanying shelling have killed at least 20 members of the regime forces and militiamen loyal to them, in addition to the injury of tens others with varying severity, while tens fighters of Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham were killed and injured, the sources also confirmed to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that this operation is led by a prominent officer in the ranks of the regime forces, who had a major role in the operations of re-controlling the neighborhoods east of the capital Damascus, and in the operations east of Damascus and in the Eastern Ghouta and other operations in Rif Dimashq, this process also comes as a continuation for the operations of the regime forces and militiamen loyal to them of Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities and Hezbollah, witnessed by Al-Qalamoun during the past months, the latest of which was against Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham and its allied Islamic factions, and also against the “Islamic State” organization in the western Qalamoun in the northwest of Rif Dimashq, which ended with displacements for thousands of civilians and members of Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham, the factions and the “Islamic State” organization to the Syrian north and Deir Ezzor Province.