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.

The main road from the capital to Damascus airport was secured.

Ghouta is dominated by the Army of Islam, one of the two main insurgent groups in the Saudi-convened High Negotiations Committee (HNC) umbrella group that has walked out of nascent Geneva peace talks twice this year.

The Rahman Legion is an alliance of Ahrar as-Sham — the other main HNC group — and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and has been fighting the Army of Islam for control of the suburb since last month.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his US counterpart John Kerry have agreed measures to sort die-hard extremists from opposition groups ready to talk peace and on stemming the flow of foreign funding to terrorists.

Visiting South African government minister Nomaindia Mfeketo assured Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of her country’s support for the Syrian people’s self-determination and struggle against foreign-backed terrorists.

Mr Assad hailed the Brics group of nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) for reducing Western hegemony and restoring balance to international relations.