BEIRUT: Heavy fighting gripped a flashpoint region near Syria’s capital on Sunday, leaving seven civilians dead and threatening a nationwide truce designed to pave the way towards peace talks.

Further east, Syrian government troops lost ground to a brutal assault by the militant Islamic State group near the key Deir Ezzor military airport.

The escalating violence across Syria in recent days augurs ill for peace negotiations in Kazakhstan later this month.

In the Wadi Barada region north-west of Damascus, fresh clashes broke out between rebel groups and advancing government forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Regime shelling of the Deir Qanun village killed seven civilians and wounded at least 20 other people, the Britain-based monitor said.

Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said it was the “highest toll” there since the nationwide truce came into force on Dec 30.

Fighting has persisted for weeks in Wadi Barada, which is the main source of water for the capital.

Local officials struck a truce with Syrian authorities on Friday to allow maintenance teams into Wadi Barada to restore water to Damascus, but the deal was called off after chief negotiator Ahmed al-Ghadban was killed the next day.

Local deal ‘null’

The two sides accused each other of assassinating the retired army officer, who had only assumed his duties to restore the water supply on Saturday.

“The agreement was considered null this morning after the regime’s multiple violations and especially after the killing of the negotiations official,” Shami said.

Shami said that the government’s maintenance workers left Wadi Barada without completing the repairs, leaving 5.5 million in Damascus and its suburbs without water.

An official from Syria’s reconciliation ministry earlier told AFP the local deal in Wadi Barada “had not completely collapsed”.

“We are communicating and pursuing new efforts in parallel with the ongoing military action,” the official said.

Although they support opposing sides in Syria’s war, Moscow and Ankara have worked closely to negotiate the nationwide truce and to prepare talks in the Kazakh capital Astana on Jan 23.

US president-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has been invited to take part in the talks, but has not yet officially responded. Attendance by the new president’s team would be a strong signal of Trump’s determination to improve relations with Russia.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2017