BREAKING NEWS

Monitor: Syrian army advances in district east of Damascus

BEIRUT - They Syrian army and its allies gained control of an arterial road in a small rebel pocket in northeast Damascus early on Monday, bringing them close to splitting the enclave in two, a Britain-based war monitor reported.
The advance was along a road that links the besieged districts of Barza, al-Qaboun and Tishrin near the Eastern Ghouta area of towns and farms that spreads out from the Syrian capital, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Barza, Qaboun and Tishrin area had already been isolated from the main rebel enclave in Eastern Ghouta, a region that has witnessed increasing violence since the beginning of the year.
There was also fighting overnight between the army and its allies and rebels in the southern city of Deraa and in areas near Aleppo in the northwest and Hama in the west accompanied by heavy bombardment and air strikes, the Observatory said.