SYRIA’S al-Qaida affiliate launched a major new assault in Damascus yesterday in the fiercest fighting the capital has seen since 2013.

Hayat Tahrir as-Sham (Hetesh) made a second attempt in three days to break through the government-held Jobar district to Qaboun to the north.

Lebanon’s Al Masdar News reported that the alliance of al-Qaida’s biggest Syrian affiliate and dozens of smaller factions had captured a textile factory in the Maghazel alNaseej industrial zone.