[16] On 7 April, government force launched an offensive east of Damascus, with the state news agency SANA claiming the military imposed a siege on the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta area.

[19] On 18 April, "gunmen" assassinated Ali Ballan, head of public relations at the Ministry of Social Affairs and a member of Syria's relief agency, in a restaurant at Mazzeh district.

SOHR stated 250 people were killed since the start of the battle for Jdaidet al-Fadl, five days prior, with them being able to document, by name, 127 of the dead, including 27 rebels.

The Army victory was a major setback for the rebels, as Otaiba was the gateway to Eastern Ghouta and the main, if not the only, weapons supply route for the Damascus area.

[29] On 26 April, government forces continued with their offensive by pushing into the Damascus districts of Jobar and Barzeh, which have a high rebel presence.

[30] An Army siege of the town of Moadamiyet, a rebel stronghold close to Darayya, was also tightening with daily bombardment and a shortage of food.

In the district of Mazzeh, Prime Minister Wael Nader Al-Halqi survived a suicide car bomb targeting his convoy.

Although fighting was still ongoing in the outskirts of Drosha after two days of clashes, according to SORH, there were reports of a partial retreat of regular forces from the area.

[36] On 8 May, the leader of the Al-Nusra Front rebel group, Abu Mohammad al-Golani, was wounded during an artillery bombardment south of Damascus.

In the following days fighting continued in the Barzeh and Jobar neighbourhoods of Damascus, where a rebel commander was killed in clashes with the local pro-government militia.

The stated aim of the operation is an attempt to recapture Otaiba and to try and reopen the rebel supply line into Damascus and the Ghouta area.

Hezbollah fighters had captured nine towns in the Al-Murj area neighboring Ghouta and opposition activists claimed thousands of members of the Lebanese group were training in an air force intelligence center near Damascus International Airport.

[42] It was also reported that the military reached the town of Adra, east of Damascus, completing a sweep through rebel-held territory and cutting more rebel supply lines.

[43] By 30 May, rebel forces in Eastern Ghouta were surrounded and pleading for reinforcements and aid to be sent as they feared government troops were "preparing to commit more massacres".

[7] The next day, Hisham Jaber, a retired Lebanese army general who heads the Middle East Center for Studies and Political Research in Beirut, said that government troops cleared up to 80 percent of the areas around the capital during the offensive.

[44] On 2 June, during intense clashes between rebels and government forces in the Jobar district of Damascus,[45] a car bomb exploded near a police station, killing nine policemen.

[50] On 11 June, rebel forces suffered heavy casualties when 27 of their fighters were killed in an Army ambush in the al-Marj area of Eastern Ghouta, while they were attempting to break through the military blockade to bring in supplies.

[52] On 15 June, state TV reported that government troops had captured the Ahmadiyeh suburb of Damascus, which is part of Eastern Ghouta.

[58] On 19 June, Army and Hezbollah forces clashed with rebels near the Khomeini hospital in the village of Zayabiyeh, close to the Shiite Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque.

[61] In the coming weeks, Hezbollah and Iraqi Shi'ite militia forces captured the areas of Bahdaliyeh and Hay al Shamalneh on the south-eastern approaches to the capital.

"[63] Still, rebels stated that the Army was making a "grinding advance" against them and they were in fear of losing arms supply routes into the capital, which would be a severe blow to their attempts to capture Damascus.

Opposition activists claimed Republican Guards troops detained hundreds of people in public places to prevent rebel fighters from hitting their forces.

[71] On 6 August, a possible mutiny occurred in the ranks of the government forces, after hundreds of Druze militiamen belonging to the "popular committees" militias handed their weapons back in and abandoned their posts in Jarmana district, choosing to return home.

The evening's bombardment came as troops pressed a months-old offensive in the suburbs of Damascus in a bid to clear the region of rebel rear bases, according to SOHR.

Once the threat of western air-strikes had passed, the Army launched a new offensive against rebel positions on 10 September, primarily in the southern suburbs of Damascus.