Syrian President Bashar al Assad said Monday "The Syrian state is determined to recover every area from the terrorists", Sky News reported.

Assad has been pictured praying at a mosque in a Damascus suburb recently captured from rebels, hours before a ceasefire is due to take effect.

Rebel fighters and civilians abandoned the neighbourhood last month as part of a deal to end one of the longest-running sieges in the country's brutal civil war, which has so far killed some 290,000 people.

After performing the Eid prayers, Assad toured some streets of the district.

Source: MENA