DAMASCUS, April 26 (Xinhua) -- The thunder was roaring over Damascus on Thursday, with its powerful boom covering the familiar sound of shelling by Syrian government troops on the Islamic State (IS) positions south of the capital.
The intermittent rainfall that started Wednesday later turned into a thunderstorm that brought about heavy rains, causing major flooding in several areas in Damascus on Thursday.
The streams formed by floodwater looked as if new rivers were flowing through the city, as some narrow roads were completely flooded.
Some cars were even swept away by the floodwater, creating a scene that Damascus had never seen before.
The state news agency SANA reported that three people were wounded in Ruken Addien area north of Damascus by the flooding, while other pro-government media outlets said that a child was killed and damages were caused to several homes and cars in the same area.
People have shared many video clips on Facebook, showing the heavy flooding sweeping through the capital's streets, mainly in Ruken Addien. One video showed a man was swept away in one of the narrow streets.
In another video, people were seen crossing a street on rocks placed in the middle of the road to avoid stepping into the water, while a taxi driver was complaining about the blocked road.
People's remarks on Facebook ranged from making jokes about the whethertructure that could not handle the heavy rainfall.
Some jokes were themed as news reports and one joke read: "clashes between winter and summer erupt in Syria amid reports of a settlement to have the winter evacuate after the people got confused between the summer and winter clothes."
Some people were more theatrical and wished if the "rainfall could wash the hearts of the people and make it pure again."
The videos of flooding across the capital went viral online. The residents could hardly hear the familiar sound of the artillery shelling on the Hajar al-Aswad and Yarmouk Camp areas south of Damascus.
SANA said the Syrian army has made new progress in the battles south of Damascus, adding that the military forces captured a network of tunnels and buildings in the Ma'amel area.
Dozens of IS militants were killed in Syrian army's assault in Hajar al-Aswad, in a bid to sever the supply routes of the militants.
A military source told Xinhua recently that the offensive on IS will continue until its fully eradication from southern Damascus.
The Syrian army turned the focus on Hajar al-Aswad and the Yarmouk Camp, a large area where Syrians and Palestinian refugees live, after capturing the entire Eastern Ghouta countryside east of Damascus.
Ahead of the beginning of the battle against IS, the terror group was offered a deal to evacuate to the remote part of the Syrian desert as the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, which controls nearby areas such as Babila and Yalada, will evacuate to rebel-held areas in the northwestern province of Idlib.
But the IS militants rejected the deal of evacuation, which sparked the war again. It is expected that after the defeat of IS, the al-Qaida-linked militants will be sent outside Babila and Yalda.
Afterwards, the entire capital will be free of rebels and the military operation is expected to move toward the southern province of Daraa, around 100 km from Damascus.
IS has lost its major stronghold late last year, with the Syrian army capturing the Deir al-Zour city in eastern Syria as well as large swaths of the Syrian desert near the Iraqi border. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces also stripped IS of its de facto capital of Raqqa north of Syria.
