DARAYYA (Syria) (Sputnik) – The Syrian army has killed 24 foreign fighters in the suburb of the Syrian capital of Damascus of Darayya overnight, a military source told RIA Novosti on Wednesday.
"We killed dozens of militants in 24 hours, among them 24 foreigners who are mostly citizens of Saudi Arabia," the source said.
Government forces were able to advance "several hundred meters" into Darayya during the operation 7.6 miles southwest of Damascus that began on Tuesday, the source specified.
House-to-house fighting continues across the Darayya suburb, with the distance between snipers and militants reaching as close as 100 yards. The Syrian army is said to have encircled the remaining fighters and cut off their supply routes.
The Nusra Front, affiliated with al-Qaeda, and the Ahrar ash-Sham terrorist organizations have controlled the majority of Daraa for three years. The militants have built hundreds of underground tunnels and destroyed nearly all of the town’s infrastructure in that time.