Syrian regime forces have intensified ongoing three-year siege on two rebel-held areas southwest of Damascus by capturing land between the two and cutting off their supply route, state media, a monitoring group and a rebel spokesman said on Saturday.
Daraya and Mouadamiya, rebel-held suburbs, were connected by a passage way that served as a supply route. Regime and allied forces captured this strip on Friday, after struggling for it since December, the sources said.
Daraya is located in close proximity to a military airport used by Russian warcrafts and the Syrian government is eager to regain control of the area.
"The Islamist groups which control Daraya have been launching rockets into the military airport zone," said Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Abu Ghiath al-Shami, spokesman for rebel group Alwiyat Seif al-Sham, part of a rebel group alliance called the Southern Front, estimated the regime would attack each area separately as they are completely besieged.
"The attempts (to storm Mouadamiya and Daraya) are continuous, they don't stop. It is a guerrilla war in Mouadamiya and Daraya," Shami said. "The regime advances by one or two points, we attack it in other places."
Shami explained that approximately 6,000 people live in Daraya, and 45,000 in Mouadamiya, and he added that the regime was now trying to starve the population out.
"They are under siege with no food, no water, no electricity, no medicine," he said.
Thursday, the Red Cross reported that it had delivered food supplies for more than 12,000 people to besieged Mouadamiya, which is sufficient for only three weeks and that regular access was needed.
