On Friday morning, the Syrian Arab Army’s 63rd Brigade of the prestigious 4th Mechanized Division – in coordination with Hezbollah, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), and the National Defense Forces (NDF) – continued their advance into the Islamist rebels last stronghold inside Al-Zabadani, capturing more territory inside the downtown area of this resort city.

Following a morning of intense firefights that stretched late into the evening on Friday, the Syrian Armed Forces and Lebanese Resistance captured the Al-Nabwa’ Neighborhood in the northeastern sector of Al-Zabadani’s downtown area after they killed an estimated 15 enemy combatants from Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham, the Free Syrian Army’s “Al-Zabadani Hawks Brigade” and the Syrian Al-Qaeda group “Jabhat Al-Nusra.”

Not long after capturing the Al-Nabwa’ Neighborhood, the Syrian Armed Forces and Lebanese Resistance advanced to the Al-Rahmat Mosque that is used by the Islamist rebels of Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham as a military base inside Al-Zabadani’s downtown area; if captured, the aforementioned Islamists will have to make decision concerning their future inside Al-Zabadani.

According to a military source in Damascus, the Islamist rebels of Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham have reached out to Turkey in order to reattempt negotiations with the Syrian Armed Forces and Hezbollah.

The source added that the Syrian Armed Forces are not interested in releasing their combatants that were captured earlier this year; they are only interested in ending the siege of the predominately Shi’i towns of Kafraya and Al-Fou’aa.