The Syrian Arab Army’s 105th Brigade of the Republican Guard (Harss Al-Jamhouri) has asserted control over a number of building blocks near the Al-Manasheer (Sawmill) Roundabout in the city of Jobar, as the latter’s operations have recently intensified in this strategic area located in the Rif Dimashq Governorate.

According to a military source in Jobar, the 105th Brigade and the National Defense Forces (NDF) have engaged Jaysh Al-Islam (Army of Islam) militants in fierce clashes near the Al-Taqawa Mosque and the Northern Towers, where a network of tunnels are used to resupply the latter’s entrenched fighters and to allow for the combatants to move freely underground in order to avoid the Syrian Arab Air Force’s (SAAF) persistent aerial bombardments.

The source further added that at least 70 percent of Jobar is under the Syrian Arab Army’s (SAA) control after a few setbacks inside the city in early December. With the coming winter and its frigid temperatures, Jaysh Al-Islam’s leader, Zahran Alloush, will be left with the burden of either accepting a ceasefire or absolute surrender to the Syrian Armed Forces.

At the village of Zibdeen, the Syrian Arab Army’s 4th Mechanized Division carried out a number of raids on Jaysh Al-Islam positions south of the Zibdeen Bridge (Jissr Zibdeen), killing scores of militants as a result. Among the dead Jaysh Al-Islam militants killed near the Zibdeen Bridge were 2 foreigners identified as “Jaber Al-‘Ajam” of Kuwait and “Jaabar Birshaleeli” of Libya.

Hezbollah (Party of God) and the NDF led an attack on Liwaa Suqour Al-Zabadani (Falcons of Zabadani Brigades) and Jabhat Al-Nusra (Al-Nusra Front) at their command-and-control den in the Al-‘Araa Quarter of the Al-Zabadani District, destroying multiple militant installments and capturing their objective point in this west Rif Dimashq Governorate area.