Government battle tanks deployed to the area. Source: @QalaatAlMudiq/Twitter
Mohammed Aloush, a political leader of Jaish al-Islam, announced on March 21 that the group joined so-called opposition forces in the ongoing clashes against Syrian government forces in the Qabun industrial area in eastern Damascus.
نبارك للاخوة في #الفيلق استرجاع الكراجات والمعامل
وقد أخبرتني قيادة #جيش_الإسلام عن استعدادهم لإرسال المؤازرات إلى جوبر مع فتح جبهة القابون— محمد مصطفى علوش (@Mohammed_Aloush) March 21, 2017
Thus, Jaish al-Islam forces joined (a coalition of militant groups led by Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda) and Faylaq al-Rahman in their attempt to seize the Qabun industrial area and to link up the militant-held part of Qabun with the militant-held area in the Eastern Ghouta region.
Jaish al-Islam is the biggest ‘opposition’ group which has joined the so-called Astana peace talks brokered by Moscow, Ankara and Tehran and is described by Russa as a moderate opposition group. Mohammed Aloush has participated in the Astana format as a representative of the ‘moderate opposition’.
However, this has not prevented Jaish al-Islam from uniting with terrorists in their attempt to seize more areast in the countryside of the Syrian capital.
Ahrar al-Sham militants are in the Qabun industrial area:
Russia should understand that neither JAI nor AAS are moderates.
Astana is to show how moderate the Syrians and the Russians are, not the US head-chopping, heart-eating rapers.
Russia should quit Astana talks in ghouta region bcs only strong groups in that areas are terrorists, even USA considers HTS as terrorist group
All these negotiating attempts are just to show that there is some diplomatic effort. Meanwhile the military operations are continuing on some of the fronts. So it’s mostly a smokescreen, I don’t think they legitimately thought they would strike a deal with these islamists.
They are using it to deescalate the situation on some fronts while attacking others. So the SAA+allies don’t overextend and the battered syrian airforce can contribute to specific fronts.