Syrian army breaks rebel hold on southern Damascus suburbs

[YahooNews]

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN (Reuters) - The Syrian army and loyalist fighters on Thursday captured a strategic southern suburb of Damascus, threatening rebel control of the wider area and cutting off a supply route for insurgents around the capital, opposition activists said. The town of Sbeineh is the third rebel neighborhood to fall to government forces since the army, aided by Shi'ite militias from Iraq, Iran and Lebanon, launched an offensive last month aimed at breaking resistance to President Bashar al-Assad around Damascus, the sources said. The Free Syrian Army pulled out after fierce battles over the past nine days," the Sham News Network, an opposition monitoring group, said in a statement. Syria's 2-1/2-year-old conflict began as peaceful protests against four decades of Assad family rule, but it has transformed into a civil war with sectarian dimensions.