Syrian troops take control of water facility from rebels

• Published date: 29 January 2017
• Publication title: Arab News Service

29 January 2017 (NNA) Syrian government troops gained control of the main water source for Damascus on Saturday, as the military worked to secure it and remove land mines in a major development that caps weeks of fighting with rebels in the area, according to Syrian state TV and opposition media.

Alaa Ibrahim, the local governor, said the evacuation of fighters to northern Syria was delayed for one day because of rain storms and freezing temperatures. Maintenance of the water facility will begin as soon as the military declares the area secure, officials said.

The development ends the standoff over Ain el-Fijeh village that restricted the water flow to nearly 5 million residents of the Damascus area for over a month. The fighting had also trapped tens of thousands of civilians in the Barada Valley area, where the water source is located.

Syrian state TV showed buses lined up to transport rebel fighters out of the village of Ain el-Fijeh, but Ibrahim said the evacuation will be delayed.

The village houses the water source with the same name, which was the major source of water for Damascus.

The opposition monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government forces entered Ain el-Fijeh along with ambulances to transport the injured as part of a deal to end the fighting there. The head of the Observatory, Rami Abdurrahman, said rebel fighters remain in other villages in the valley, including militants with the al-Qaida-linked affiliate in Efra, a village about 10 kilometers (six miles) from the water source.

The cease-fire, brokered by...