On February 8, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) captured the building of the Lebanese-Jordanian company, Ghubir square, the Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf mosque and several positions around the civilian administration building in the northern part of Irbin district east of the Syrian capital Damascus, according to several Syrian pro-government sources. These claims are yet to be confirmed by any official sources.
Earlier, warplanes of the Syrian Arab Air Force (SyAAF) conducted dozens of airstrikes on the positions of Jaysh al-Islam, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Ahrar al-Sham Movement and Faylaq al-Rahman in the districts of Irbin, Duma, Harasta, Madira, Mesraba, Zamalka and Saqba.
From its side, the Ahrar al-Sham Movement and its allies announced that their fighters had ambushed a unit of the SAA’s Republican Guard in the northern part of Harasta district north of Irbin. The armed groups claimed that all the fighters of the SAA unit were killed and injured in the ambush.
The Ahrar al-Sham Movement and its allies also revealed that their fighters killed ten SAA soldiers during clashes in Harasta district on February 7.
Recently the SAA was able to reorganize its units east of Damascus and began conducting more effective operations against the Ahrar al-Sham Movement and its allies. This forced the armed groups to halt their attack around the Armored Vehicles Base south of Harasta.