A suicide bomber killed four people and wounded 17 yesterday in central Damascus as radical fundamentalists tightened their grip on the ancient Christian town of Maloula. Twelve nuns from the Maloula convent of St Thekla have been taken to the nearby al-Qaeda-held town of Yabroud.
The escalation of bombings and random mortar attacks on Damascus city centre are seen by Syrian analysts as proof of the weakness of the diverse and divided insurgent groups which have, since June, been systematically driven from suburbs and outlying towns.
Christian neighbourhoods of the city have been a focus of indiscriminate mortar strikes, particularly from the eastern Ghouta region where insurgent units are under pressure from the army.
Although declared off limits to armed forces by both sides, fundamentalists first seized Maloula, which has a mixed Christian-Muslim population, in September and held it for several days. The second occupation of the town began on Monday.
Maloula and Yabroud lie west of the main Damascus-Homs highway which the army has been trying to clear of opposition forces for several months. Over the past two weeks troops have taken the strategic towns of Nabk and Qara, hubs into which insurgents funnel fighters and arms into Syria from Lebanon.
By attacking Christian districts of the capital and taking Maloula, radicals seek to undermine Christian confidence in the government and to divert troops from the ongoing battle for the Homs highway.
Once it is under army control and supply lines to Aleppo are secured, the battle to eject insurgents from districts they hold there is expected to commence. Al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria have called upon opposition fighters across Syria to gather to repel the offensive.
A source close to the Lebanese Hizbullah movement, which has dispatched seasoned fighters to bolster the Syrian army, said they will take part and that there will be no frontal assault. "The army and its allies will move forward gradually," he said.
The conquest of Aleppo could enable the army to move toward the Turkish border, 50km away, retake the entire northsouth highway and drive insurgents into Turkey, where the rebel Free Syrian Army has bases.
In the northeast, the Kurdish Democratic Union, whose fighters have driven radical fundamentalists from a stretch of Kurdish majority territory along the Turkish border, has declared autonomy and called for the creation of a Syrian federation.
Although counted as an opposition group, this Kurdish movement is accused of collaborating with the government and having ties to separatist Kurds in Turkey.
Syria’s Kurds like the Christians are suspicious of the insurgents.
Meanwhile, the United Nations announced it had delivered food to 3.4 million Syrians in November, but said that it had been unable to reach a further 500,000 due to heavy fighting in contested areas. “The scale of the humanitarian response needed for the looming winter is unprecedented,” a statement said.
