Syrian President Bashar Assad made a rare visit to the front line of his country’s civil war, spending New Year’s Eve with his troops in a tense eastern Damascus neighborhood.

Assad’s office said in its Twitter account that the visit took place in Jobar, northeast of Damascus, on the occasion of the New Year. The district came under heavy Syrian air force strikes on Wednesday according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the nearly four-year conflict.

“If there was an area of joy which remained in Syria, it is thanks to the victories that you achieved in the face of terrorism,” Assad told troops, according to the Twitter account.