Date: May 22, 2018 Source: The Daily Star Regime captures last Daesh-held area near Damascus BEIRUT: The Syrian army has restored control over all areas surrounding Damascus for the first time since early in the 7-year-old war, after pushing Daesh (ISIS) militants out of a south Damascus pocket, the military said. Pro-Syrian government forces have been battling for weeks to recover Al-Hajar al-Aswad district and the adjacent Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp from Daesh since driving rebels from Eastern Ghouta in April. In a televised statement Syria’s army high command said Al-Hajar al-Aswad and Yarmouk had been cleared of militants. “Damascus and its surroundings and Damascus countryside and its villages are completely secure areas,” the statement said, adding the army would continue to fight “terrorism” across Syria. The rebels now mainly control just two large areas in the northwest and southwest near the borders with Turkey and Jordan. Turkey and the U.S. also have presences in parts of Syria outside government control. Daesh, which was driven from most of the Euphrates River valley last year, now controls only two besieged desert areas in eastern Syria. Another militant group that has pledged loyalty to the group holds a small enclave in the southwest. A temporary humanitarian cease-fire had been in place since Sunday night in Al-Hajar al-Aswad to allow women, children and the elderly to leave the area, state media said early Monday. Army soldiers fired into the air in celebration and held up Syrian flags, against a cityscape of shattered buildings and widespread destruction, state television footage showed. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sunday fighters had begun withdrawing from the area toward Daesh territory in eastern Syria under a surrender deal, but state media said that fighting continued. The Observatory said Monday buses had already started leaving south Damascus for Daesh areas in eastern Syria. Both Russia and Iran have provided crucial military support to Bashar Assad’s forces, giving them the upper hand in the civil war. Russian President Vladimir Putin told Assad during a meeting last week that a political settlement in Syria should encourage foreign countries to withdraw their troops from Syria. Putin’s envoy to Syria, Alexander Lavrentyev, said the Russian leader was referring to Iranian forces. But Monday, Tehran appeared to reject that idea, saying its forces will remain in Syria and continue fighting “terrorism” at the request of the Syrian government. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi told reporters Monday that no one can force Tehran to do anything it doesn’t desire to do. “Our presence in Syria has been based on a request by the Syrian government and Iran will continue its support as long as the Syrian government wants,” he said.