Syria Army Celebrates 'Total Recapture' of Damascus

Military in full control for first time since 2011
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted May 22, 2018 12:30 AM CDT
Syria: Damascus Now 'Completely Secure'
In this photo released on Sunday, April 22, 2018 by the Syrian official news agency SANA, smoke rises after Syrian government airstrikes and shelling hit the Hajar al-Aswad neighborhood.   (SANA via AP, File)

Syrian state TV says the military and police forces are celebrating recapturing the last neighborhoods in Damascus that were held by the rebels and ISIS militants. Al-Ikhbariya TV broadcast footage of a ceremonial police motorcade entering the Hajar al-Aswad neighborhood with sirens blaring on Tuesday. The state broadcaster then showed a police ceremony taking place in the neighborhood, much of it left in ruins and rubble from the fighting. Syria's military announced it had recaptured Hajar al-Aswad from ISIS militants on Monday, bringing the entire capital and its suburbs under full government control for the first time since 2011, the AP reports. "Damascus and its surroundings … are completely secure," declared military spokesman Gen. Ali Mayhoub, per the BBC. (More Syria stories.)

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