It has been little over two weeks since the Syrian army launched its military operation to retake Eastern Ghouta from the hands of armed rebel groups operating in this area near the capital Damascus. On Sunday the Syrian army reported gains of thirty percent of the area of eastern Ghouta.

We are now standing on Tal Ferzat, a strategic location that overlooks almost all of Ghouta. You can see behind me districts like Beit Na'em and Beir Sawa and all the way far on the horizon Duma, the biggest town of Eastern Ghouta. All of Ghouta is literally under the sight of the Syrian army because of this strategic location it just regained. Officers in the military have been telling us throughout the past two weeks that this was going to be a very difficult battle and travelling through these areas, we became more aware of why this was a very difficult situation: the fortifications that the rebels have been working on for the past six years in addition to the large number of fighters that the rebels mobilized to fend off government attacks.

The army has achieved a substantial gain by taking Tel Ferzat and the villages around it. But it is now looking ahead to a very hard battle to take the town of Beit Sawa and the Duma the biggest town of Eastern Ghouta.

It is unclear at this point whether the rebels will be able to maintain their defense lines or will they lose more ground to the military. We have been speaking to rebel sources who told us that they are going to surprise the army when it tries to advance, while the army's officers say they have prepared for everything. Alaa Ebrahim, CGTN, Ghouta.