Syria regime advances in Wadi Barada

Forces loyal to Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad and allied Shia militias advanced in a strategic valley near Damascus today, according to an organisation that monitors the conflict, and the region’s governor said opposition fighters had let engineers enter a damaged pumping station that supplies most of the capital’s water.

The Wadi Barada area has become the most intense battlefront in the Syrian civil war, and the disruption to water supplies caused by Assad regime bombing has caused severe shortages in Damascus since the beginning of the year.

The regime army and the Lebanese Shia jihadist group Hezbollah gained almost complete control of the town of Bseima, taking them closer to the Ain Al-Fijah spring, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.

However, the Wadi Barada Media Centre said on Facebook that the regime was still shelling Bseima and there were also intermittent gun battles in the village.

The governor of the Damascus Countryside Province said in comments broadcast on television that engineers had entered Ain Al-Fijah to fix the damage to the pumping station. This was confirmed by Wadi Barada activists, who said that technicians had been granted safe passage after a ceasefire took effect earlier this afternoon.

The governor said it was part of a wider agreement for armed opposition factions to stop fighting in Wadi Barada. This would include the departure of some of them for other opposition-held areas in the country and a settlement with others who would remain there.

The governor’s comments could not be verified or confirmed, particularly as battles seemed to be ongoing.

An earlier agreement to allow repair teams to access the pumping stations crumpled amidst the Assad regime’s forces’ decision to start shelling their own envoys that were travelling to Ain Al-Fijah accompanied by members of the opposition.

The area has become the main focus of fighting since the regime retook full control of Aleppo last month. The conflict, now close to its sixth year, has been raging since 2011 between the Assad regime’s forces, backed by Russia, Iran and international Shia jihadists, and the opposition seeking to oust him backed by Turkey, the US and Arabian Gulf states.

It comes despite a two-week-old ceasefire agreement brokered by Russia and Turkey, which is one of the main supporters of many rebel groups. Since the truce, nearly 180 civilians have died in clashes and bombardment, the British-based Observatory said.