Fighting in metro Damascus has largely gone in favor of the Assad government’s forces in recent months, and an effort by rebels to break the blockade against one of their last strongholds, the suburb of eastern Ghoula, does not appear to be going well.
According to the most recent accounts from rebel activists, the fighting over the weekend has left at least 160 of the rebels dead, and the siege remains in place.
The Syrian state media hasn’t issued their version of the fighting yet, and there are no indications of how many casualties the Syrian military suffered, but since they have the rebels boxed in and cut off from supplies, they were at a clear advantage.
The rebels around Damascus are largely out of rebel supply lines at this point, reflecting that the stalemated civil war is increasingly boiling down to regions, with the Assad government retaining Damascus and the rest of the south, while rebels solidify their control over the northwest. The Kurdish dominated northeast is more or less outside of the control of all the factions, with the Kurdish militias controlling it.
oh well. let them all kill each other.)