DAMASCUS, Syria — Since Sept. 17, showers of mortar shells and Katyusha rockets have been falling on Damascus. The calm that has prevailed in the city over the past few months disappeared when rebel fighters began escalating their attack on the eastern Ghouta front. This has led to new fronts opening up in several areas surrounding Damascus.

But little has changed for the people of Damascus since the Ajnad al-Sham Islamic Union announced the Ajnad 2 Operation in eastern Ghouta on Sept. 15. Damascenes have grown accustomed to falling rockets, an addition to the routine of daily traffic jams and crowds on the city’s streets. When a shell falls, only a few panic, and an hour later life returns to normal.

The Ajnad 2 operation, which targeted the security cordon around Damascus — including the neighborhoods of Abu Remmaneh, Malki, Shalan and al-Rawda — started after a video statement from Ajnad al-Sham on Sept. 15. “[The operation was started] following the hideous massacres and barbaric bombings by the regime on the besieged areas, particularly in Damascus and eastern and western Ghouta, that have reached civilian complexes and residential neighborhoods, claiming the lives of hundreds of martyrs and wounding [many more], especially in the besieged towns of eastern Ghouta.”

The operation coincided with the escalating clashes in eastern Ghouta, where on Sept. 9, rebels announced the seizure of the town of al-Dukhaniyya, just southeast of Damascus. This town is important, for it represents the main entrance to Ain Tarma and Kafr Batna, and is close to Jaramana, al-Duwailah, Kashkul and Kabas. The latter is an entrance to the old city of Damascus and close to the airport road.