SYRIAN soldiers and allied Hezbollah guerillas freed swathes of the Ghouta extremist enclave on the outskirts of Damascus yesterday.

The allies took advantage of infighting between insurgent factions to retake the towns of Deir al-Asafir and Zabdean, captured by rebels in 2012.

Numerous villages and farms were also freed from Rahman Legion militants in an advance deep into a pocket in the south of the rebel zone.