At least 19 members of the regime forces and allies were killed south of Damascus and the regime fights desperately to control al-Hajar al-Aswad and the rest of ISIS-controlled areas
Damascus Province, the Syrian Observatory for human rights: the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored the pace of clashes escalating in the southern section of the capital Damascus, where the Observatory monitored violent clashes between the regime forces supported by loyal gunmen of Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities against the “Islamic State” organization in the last 24 hours, and the clashes are concentrated in al-Hajar al-Aswad neighbourhood, outskirts and vicinity of Yarmouk Camp and al-Tadamon neighborhood, accompanied by intense and violent shelling –which still taking place– by artillery and rocket shells, and missiles believed to be ground-to-ground, in addition to dropping barrel bombs by the helicopters and bombardment by warplanes on areas controlled by the “Islamic State” organization and its positions south of Damascus.
In these violent clashes the “Islamic State” organization restored the initiative, despite regime’s control of most of al-Hajar al-Aswad neighborhood, where the Syrian Observatory monitored the organization carrying out counterattacks that forced the regime forces to retreat into residential blocks, buildings and sites in al-Hajar al-Aswad, in conjunction with the continuation of attempts by the regime forces and their allies of Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities to control the entire neighbourhood, and confine the organization in a narrowest possible place to force it to bow to the agreement, which caused significant casualties in the ranks of the regime forces and militiamen loyal to them, where the Syrian Observatory monitored the killing of at least 19 members of the regime forces and militiamen loyal to them of Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities, and confirmed information about the killing of members of the organization in the same clashes which took place during the last 24 hours.
These casualties have raised the number of persons who have been killed of both parties, where it has increased to 142 at least, the number of members of the regime forces and militiamen loyal to them of Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities, who were killed since Thursday the 19th of April 2018, including 16 officers and 6 of them were executed, while it has increased to 111, the number of members of the organization who were killed in the shelling, clashes and targeting that left tens of wounded in the ranks of the both parties, and the death toll is expected to rise because of the continued combat operations and the presence of injured cases in critical situation.