+ A
A -
afp
Beirut, Lebanon
The capture of Eastern Ghouta is a significant milestone for Syria's regime and paves the way for government troops to shift south to where the seven-year uprising first began: Daraa.
After securing the capital from deadly rockets that once rained in from its suburbs, President Bashar al-Assad now has forces ready to redeploy elsewhere in the war-ravaged country.
The Islamists and jihadists that hold the northwest province of Idlib remain a threat, but analysts say Assad's priority will likely be the southern province of Daraa, where protests against his rule first broke out in 2011.
After losing swathes of territory to rebels, Syria's army has regained control of more than 55 percent of the country with crucial help from its ally Russia, according to analyst Fabrice Balanche.
Its most recent victory is in Ghouta: the onetime rebel bastion that has now been neutralised after a blistering air and ground assault and the Russia-brokered evacuation of thousands of rebels and civilians.
"The liberation of Eastern Ghouta means lifting the security and military threat posed to Damascus," said Bassam Abou Abdallah, who heads the Damascus Centre for Strategic Studies.
"After Ghouta, it's likely the Syrian government will head south -- the current situation in Daraa must be finished off," he told AFP.
The regime said it had retaken Eastern Ghouta on Saturday after a nearly two-month assault that killed more than 1,700 civilians and the evacuation deals that saw rebels and civilians bussed up to northern Syria.
With Ghouta now taken care of, the only risk posed to Damascus stems from a few southern districts still held by the Islamic State group, including the Yarmuk Palestinian camp.
Al-Watan newspaper, which is close to the government, said the army will seek to"finish off" those districts, but analysts believe the regime's real interest lies elsewhere.
"Maintaining some IS pockets serves the regime's narrative in order to reconquer the rest of Syrian territory," said Julien Theron, a professor at the Paris Institute of Political Studies.
He said the regime could redeploy troops to reinforce other fronts against rebels, including Daraa which he described as a"real problem".
The vast Daraa province lies south of Damascus and also shares borders with Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Non-jihadist rebels, backed by the United States and Jordan, hold nearly three-quarters of it and parts of the provincial capital, also called Daraa.
"The regime has been focusing on Daraa province for a long time, trying to break through rebel territory to reach the city," said Theron.
