The Free Syrian Army groups repelled at least nine attempts by the Assad regime forces and their allied sectarian militias to advance on western rural Damascus, killing 220 militants, including senior commanders.
Jabal al-Sheikh Brigades Union, the largest FSA umbrella group operating in western Ghouta, on Tuesday published figures detailing the losses suffered by Assad’s forces and their allies since the start of the offensive they launched on the towns and villages of western Ghouta in Rural Damascus in mid-September.
The Union said that at least 220 militants and officers of the Assad regime forces were killed in nine failed ground attacks on the towns of Baradea, Shayyarat, and Al-Zayat.
According to the Union, the FSA fighters destroyed five tanks, a Shilka vehicle, a G-Vozdica gun, and a 14.5 mm heavy machine gun.
The Union pointed out that helicopters of the Assad regime had dropped a total of 700 barrel bombs, 40 napalm-filled barrel bombs, and 70 naval mines on towns and villages of western Ghouta villages since the start of the campaign on the FSA-held area. Assad regime forces also carried out at least six airstrikes on the area. Moreover, regime forces and their allies shelled residential areas and the FSA positions in western Ghouta with no fewer than 5,000 mortar and tank shells.
More than 120,000 civilians, including 3,000 children, are currently trapped in western Ghouta after the Assad regime forces and their allied foreign militias tightened the siege on the area 55 days before. The area suffer shortages of food and medical supplies as regime forces prevent civilians from leaving the area for treatment. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department + Al-Hayat Newspaper)
