DAMASCUS – Pro-government forces have made advances throughout Syria in recent days in fighting with rebels around the big cities of Damascus and Aleppo.

Some of the key clashes have been close to the Lebanese border, where deadly twin suicide bombings this week hit the embassy of Iran, Syria’s main regional ally, in what was widely seen as a revenge attack.

Meanwhile, an al-Qaeda front group fighting in Iraq and Syria has called for jihadi groups to join forces under its banner, according to an audio message posted Thursday, Nov 21, on the Internet.

In remarks purportedly made by Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) spokesman said militant groups should close ranks against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“We call for all jihadi leaders and soldiers and people to accelerate in joining the project of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant,” Adnani said.

The authenticity of the audio message and the identity of the speaker could not be independently verified.

His remarks come weeks after al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri ordered ISIS to shut down in Syria and instead anointed al-Nusra Front, another group affiliated with al-Qaeda, to carry the network’s banner in the Syrian conflict.

Syrian troops, backed by fighters from Hizbullah, have expelled rebels from most areas on the Lebanese border.

A new offensive saw Assad’s troops retake key positions in the Qalamoun mountains northwest of Damascus this week, one of the last conduits from Lebanon for the arms his government says opposition fighters are receiving from Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Those gains followed the recapture of southern suburbs of Damascus that impeded the rebels’ ability to carry out military action in the heart of the capital.

Loyalist forces worked to consolidate a corridor to the international airport, east of Damascus, seizing an arc of territory from Shebaa to Muadamiyat al-Sham, scene of one of the alleged chemical weapons attacks that sparked a deal between the United Nations and Damascus in October.

The army’s recapture of the suburbs of Husseiniyeh, Diabiyeh, Buweida, Sbeineh and Hojeira threatened the rebels’ ability to maintain operations in south Damascus, a security source told AFP.

It came as rebel hopes of Libyan-style Western support for their provisional administration have dwindled in the face of U.S. pressure for a UN-brokered peace conference, also backed by Damascus ally Moscow.

Government forces hold the whole of the capital although rebels have repeatedly bombarded central districts from the outskirts.

The army also holds nearly all of the battleground central third city of Homs, cradle of the uprising against Assad that broke out in March 2011.

Troops have also marched on the northern city of Aleppo, once Syria’s bustling commercial capital, in a bid to consolidate supply lines to neighborhoods under their control and deny those of the rebels.

“It’s part of an overall strategy to surround the rebels,” a military source in Damascus said. “It’s a patient, step-by-step way of retaking enemy positions.”

The military’s tactics have seen the recapture this month of a string of towns southeast of Aleppo, including Sfeira, Tal Aran, Tal Hasel, Aziziyeh and Dweirniyeh.

The aim is to reopen Aleppo international airport to civilian flights, suspended in January, the military source said.

Al-Qaeda loyalists among the rebels have also taken a battering at the hands of Kurdish militia, eager to stake a claim to Iraq-style autonomy in any post-Assad constitution,

Assad’s forces pulled out of most Kurdish-majority areas last year, counting on their lack of support for the rebels and their acquiescence with his government.

The sole provincial capital in rebel hands is the eastern, Euphrates valley city of Raqa, where al-Qaeda fighters, many from abroad, have asserted their control.

The jihadis used to hold sway over a much bigger swathe of territory in the region, but Kurdish forces have fought back, seizing control of much of Syria’s northeastern border with Iraq and Turkey.  

– Al-Akhbar, TAAN