By Wassim Essa, click to see the full-size image
On May 17, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and the Palestinian Liberation Army (PLA) captured several buildings in the northern part of al-Hajar al-Aswad district and in southwestern part of the Yarmuk refugee camp, south of the city of Damascus, according to the Hezbollah media wing Syria.
The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) also announced that warplanes of the Syrian Arab Air Force (SyAAF) had carried out several airstrikes on ISIS positions in al-Hajar al-Aswad, Tadamon and in the Yarmouk camp.
Meanwhile, the ISIS-linked news agency Amaq reported that the besieged fighters of ISIS in southern had Damascus launched a counter attack and had recaptured several positions in al-Hajar al-Aswad and the Yarmouk refugee camp after killing dozens of SAA soldiers. However, these claims were not confirmed by any other source.
According to local observers, this counter attack is a desperate attempt by ISIS to secure its last positions south of Damascus. The terrorist group launched similar attacks before its defeat in Iraq’s Mosul in 2017. However, this tactic was proven to be useless and ISIS ended up losing more men and equipment.
