Syrian army captures new area in Eastern Ghouta

DAMASCUS, March 6 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian army on Tuesday fully captured the town of Muhamadiyeh in the capital Damascus' Eastern Ghouta countryside, the latest in a series of victories the Syrian army achieved in the war on the rebel groups in that sprawling area, according to state news agency SANA.

The Syrian forces are now mopping up the town to defuse explosive devices left by the rebels in that town, said SANA, adding that the Syria military units are hunting down rebels in the nearby farms to expand the safety ring around that area to make it a new launching pad for further operations in Eastern Ghouta.

Capturing the town has enabled the Syrian army to cut off supply routes and communication between the rebels in Eastern Ghouta, said SANA, adding that the rebels in that area are suffering chaos and collapse.

In tandem with the military operations in Eastern Ghouta, the army is securing the humanitarian corridor between the Wafidin area and Eastern Ghouta to allow civilians to leave toward government-run shelters.

The achievement is the latest in a series of successful military operations that have enabled the Syrian army to capture 40 percent of Eastern Ghouta since the military operation started late last month.

A day earlier, a humanitarian convoy of 46 truckloads of aid entered Eastern Ghouta, the first aid to reach that rebel-held area in that region since the UN Security Council adopted a resolution to achieve a 30-day-long humanitarian pause on Feb. 24.

However, the International Committee of the Red Cross said not all of the aid was unloaded in Douma in Eastern Ghouta due to the "security situation" in that area, with activists reporting shelling on the area which pushed aid workers to leave.

Meanwhile, Russian media outlets said women and children were evacuated from Eastern Ghouta overnight, as part of the Russian-backed humanitarian pause thorough the Wafidin humanitarian corridor northeast of Damascus.

Eastern Ghouta has grabbed headlines recently amid a government resolve to recapture that sprawling area while at the same time allowing civilians to leave as around 400,000 people still live in that rebel-held enclave.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the ongoing military operation in Eastern Ghouta has killed 800 people. Enditem