Tens of Militants Surrender in Damascus Countryside

Over 200 militants have turned themselves in to the Syrian army in Damascus and its surrounding areas, media reports said.
A sum of 202 militants gave up fight and surrendered themselves to the Syrian authorities in the capital city and its surrounding areas, the Beirut-based Al-Nashra news website reported.

Several groups of militants have surrendered to the Syrian army in the Damascus Countryside in the last several months.

Hundreds of gunmen have been laying down their weapons and turning themselves in to authorities in areas across the country.

This number seems to be on the rise as the army has been making steady gains in the battlefield against the terrorist groups, recapturing an increasing number of areas, including strategic sites, which helped cut off many of the militants’ supply routes and forced them to surrender or run away.

Also in the past 24 hours, Syrian troops raided militants’ centers in various parts of Damascus province, killing, wounding and arresting so many anti-government fighters.

Battlefronts near the court building in Harasta and entrance of Misraba in Damascus countryside, were the scenes of heavy clashes between the rebels and Syrian soldiers who pushed the rebels back from their strongholds and killed so many of them.

The army also killed many terrorists in its operations in Douma, al-Rihan farms and Kfar Batna in Eastern al-Ghouta, killing too many, including Khalid al-Milq, leader of a terrorist groups.

Also, the Syrian soldiers attacked militant’s strongholds in al-Kastan, Jabal al-Akrad, Ain al-Bardeh, Ayn al-Souda amd Eblin in Idle countryside, killing and injuring several fighters.

Meantime, Human Rights groups announced that 76,021 people were killed in Syria’s insurgencies during 2014.

A total of 33,278 of the victims were civilians, making almost half of the total casualties. The conflict started in 2011 with protests which quickly grew into armed insurgency against the legal government of Damascus, RT reported.

According to the UN statistics, the total number of casualties since the beginning of the conflict is over 190,000.

Also millions have been displaced inside and outside of the country.

The crisis could be solved through dialogue between the government and protestors, but interferences of certain western countries and their regional allies pushed the country towards a four-year-long civil war.

Elsewhere, a large number of militants were killed and injured in the Syrian army’s operations in Daraa and Homs.

A military source told the Syrian Arab News Agency that the Syrian soldiers killed a number of rebels and injured many others near Katakit building and the vocational training center in Daraa countryside.

Militants’ positions in Busre al-Harir, Ataman and al-Sheikh Miskin in Daraa countryside were also raided by army men who successfully pushed back the anti-government fighters and fortified their strongholds.

Meantime, Army forces stormed rebels’ gathering centers in Um Sahrej, Rahoum, Masaada, Ayn Hussein, Haret al-Badou in Homs countryside and foiled an attempt by the terrorists to infiltrate into the farms of al-Wae’r.

Homs province, as the main route between Damascus and the Northern and Western parts of Syria, has been the scene of heavy clashes between the government and militants.

Daraa province bordering Jordan has also been also one of the main spots for international terrorist to infiltrate into the Syrian territories.

Damascus, that is aware of strategic position of these two provinces, has strengthened government forces there to cut rebels’ routs with bordering countries.

Also, a Britain-based monitoring group said that the Kurdish fighters have gained control over about 70 percent of Syria’s strategic town of Kobani from the Takfiri militants.

ISIL Takfiri militants have lost ground at the Kurdish town where they face forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), said the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The YGP forces made significant advances in their fight against the terrorists overnight on Tuesday.

The US-led coalition also launched five airstrikes near the town, whose Southern and Central parts are now under the fighters’ control along with most of the West in an area stretching up to the border.

Since late September, the US and some of its Arab allies have been conducting airstrikes against ISIL inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate.

The ISIL terrorists currently control swaths of territory across Iraq and neighboring Syria where they have been committing heinous crimes.

Meantime, Syrian President Bashar Assad inspected at the beginning of the New Year the officers and the soldiers of the army units deployed in Jobar in Damascus countryside.

President Assad addressed the soldiers, asserting that their achievements in face of terrorism are behind the Syrians’ joy.

The Syrian Army and government have defended their country against insurgents since 2011 when a huge number of foreign terrorists flocked to the Middle-Eastern country.

In spite of certain western states’ military and financial supports for militants, the Syrian troops have been able to push them back from many areas across the country, and based on military observers the fall of militancy in Syria is not far.