The Syrian army recovered for the first time since 2012, the control of the capital after the last ISIS jihadists left the place

The government of Bashar al Assad regained control of Damascus, the capital of Syria, after the last jihadists belonging to the Islamic State Terrorist Group (ISIS) completely abandoned this territory on Monday.

Leer en español: Damasco a la orden de Siria: El gobierno de Bashar al Assad recuperó el control

Apparently, the Yishadists would have started their retreat since Sunday night, to end the operation on Monday. According to the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), Rami Abdel Rahman, this action included the use of 36 buses, which transported 1,600 fighters from ISIS and their families. They would have been transported to the east of the Syrian country, where the extremist group retains control of part of the desert.

However, the doubts are centered around a presumed pact with the extremists. Although up to now there is no official version, the monitoring center, based in the United Kingdom, presented the thesis of an agreement between Al Assad’s government and the Islamic State.

The questions grow more because the official representative of the Syrian army, said that the truce would be until Monday afternoon, so that women and children could move to safe areas, away from the combat areas. However, the same spokesman later stated that the Syrian army "eliminated" a large number of terrorists and that this allowed them to regain control of the area.

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It should be noted that the monitoring center stated that the extremists' place of concentration was extremely silent that night, because they tried to conceal an alleged agreement between the Government and members of the Islamic State.

This situation brings up again the information published by the British chain SkyNews, which obtained ISIS documents, smuggled out to Turkey, where allegedly, Al Assad’s government would be one of the main customers of the hydrocarbons extracted under control of ISIS.

Additionally, the documents reveal negotiations where there would be exchanges of fertilizers for oil and the presumed complicity in leaking information from attacks on extremist posts, allowing them to escape, before being surprised. However, it should be noted that none of these theses have been proven.

The truth is that these actions are seeking to preserve the safety of the civilian population, because since the beginning of the conflicts, both ISIS and other extremists would have been concentrated in the vicinity of the capital, from where they directed attacks and bombings to different neighborhoods of Damascus.

It is noteworthy that, with the support of the Gulf, United States, United Kingdom, and France, the Government has managed to recover spaces and seek the release of the area near the capital, the Ghouta. Even, recently in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Al Assad stressed the importance of the recovery of Damascus, to implement the necessary political process for that nation.

Latin American Post | Julio Abella
Translated from “Damasco a la orden de Siria: El gobierno de Bashar al Assad recuperó el control”