The Syrian army resumed on Monday its battle against fighters of the Islamic State group (IS) in Al-Hajar Al-Aswad, south of Damascus, after a short ceasefire, according to Syrian state media.
Recently, the Syrian army and IS militants entered a five-hour temporary ceasefire to allow women, children, and elderly people to leave the region, which was under the rule of IS, state television said.
For weeks, the pro-government Syrian forces and its Russian and Iranian allies were battling to restore the region, which is the last pocket that the Syrian government does not control in the Syrian capital and surrounding region.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the ceasefire ostensibly came into effect for five hours, and the IS fighters left to another region under their rule in eastern Syria. However, state media denied that any fighters had left the region.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in Syria since the beginning of the uprising in 2011. The uprising turned into a civil war, and the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad brought forces of his Iranian and Russian allies, in addition to the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, to support him against armed rebels. On the other side, hundreds of jihadists from all over the world trvalled to Syria to support the Syrian rebels and the Free Syrian Army fighting against Al-Assad.
