ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

DAMASCUS, SYRIA (10:15 P.M.) - Jaysh Al-Islam (Army of Islam) and their Islamist allies are facing complete defeat in the East Ghouta region of rural Damascus, as the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and their allies continue their onslaught near the Syrian capital. Most recently, Jaysh Al-Islam lost two imperative hilltop villages in the northern part of the East Ghouta, leaving them completely exposed at Douma's eastern flank. The two hilltop villages captured by the Syrian Armed Forces in the East Ghouta were Tal Sawwan and Tal Kurdi; these sites are located directly north of the strategic town of Al-Reyhan. With Douma exposed, the Syrian Arab Army's 105th Brigade of the Republican Guard will likely offer the Islamist rebels one last chance to surrender; if rejected, they will storm the town from two different flanks.

(TASS) Moscow strongly condemns a chemical attack against civilians in Aleppo, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova said in a commentary on Monday. The ministry reports that on Sunday terrorists shelled Hamdaniya and Dahiyet al-Assad districts in western Aleppo using self-made shells stuffed with chemical agents. "At least 35 people were poisoned, many of them were hospitalized," the ministry said. "This incident in which terrorists used toxic agents against civilians is unfortunately not an isolated one," the commentary said. "Earlier, gunmen applied similar chemical weapons in 2013 in East Ghouta, in 2013 not far from the settlement of Khan al-Assal at Aleppo, in 2015 in the settlement of Marea in the same province and also in the summer of 2016 when the Salah-Eddin neighborhood of Aleppo was shelled," the diplomat said in the commentary. "We consider it our duty to remind those, who as they themselves maintain have influence on armed