Syrian army captures Wadi Barada near Damascus

The advance of government forces comes a week after fruitless negotiations between Damascus and rebels in Astana.

Syrian government forces have recaptured all towns 
and villages in the Wadi Barada valley near the capital, Damascus, according to a statement by the Syrian 
military.

"Units of our armed forces, together with ... allied forces 
have achieved their mission in returning security and 
stability" to the area, said the statement, read out by 
a military spokesman on Syrian state TV on Sunday.

The Syrian army and its allies took over a Wadi Barada
 village containing a major spring and pumping station
 that supplies most of Damascus' water on Saturday.

Heavy clashes between government troops and rebel 
forces were sporadic in Wadi Barada since a December 
30 ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey.

Fighting continued even after a negotiated deal to
 restore water to Damascus earlier this month.

Under the agreement, teams were meant to repair the
infrastructure that supplies Damascus with water in
 exchange for a cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal 
of rebel fighters willing to do so.

About 5.5 million in Damascus and its suburbs have 
been without water since December 22.

The Syrian conflict started as an uprising against 
President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011. It subsequently escalated into a full-scale civil war that has left hundreds 
of thousands of people dead and more than half the
 country's pre-war population displaced.

United Nations-hosted negotiations on the Syrian
 conflict planned for February 8 in Geneva have been postponed until the end of that month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last week.

"The date of February 8 has been put back until the end 
of next month," Lavrov said at a meeting on Friday with
 Syrian opposition groups in Astana, Kazakhstan, that 
ended last week without a major breakthrough.

Key players Russia, Turkey and Iran backed the Astana 
talks, also attended by government representatives, 
and the main result was an agreement by the three
 sides to try to shore up a shaky ceasefire on the ground
 in the war-torn country.

The latest peace initiative to halt fighting comes after
 the Syrian army, backed by Russian and Iranian
 firepower, dealt rebels a crushing blow by forcing them 
out of eastern Aleppo last month.