Syria Update: Fight for a school in Jobar. Tank vs. Grenade Launcher Duel

Syria Update: Fight for a school in Jobar. Tank vs. Grenade Launcher Duel


The final preparations for another battle to secure this school compound in Jobar were in full swing. Syrian Army commanding officers started them with the reconnaissance debriefing. They themselves had visited and inspected all their troops’ sites, trying to take into account every little detail and predict all possible combat scenarios of the battle ahead and to figure out in advance all likely firing positions of the enemy. However, in the course of the war, something always presents itself that could not have been foreseen.


- "As the tank moves ahead, you start watching out all around so that no one could pop out, so that not a single shot at the tank would be fired."


Shortly before the battle began, the tanks’ crewmembers had also talked about how they would coordinate their actions.

It was time for the troops to take their original positions.

The first gunshot by the SAA troops blew away the manmade sand hill in front of the militants’ positions. Subsequently, the terrorists’ positions that had been earlier spotted in the buildings immediately adjacent to the school were engaged.


- "Move forward, if you're ready. One tank to the left, another one to the right. After having fired, immediately pull back steadily."

Tanks as well as armored personnel carriers moved in to provide support to the infantry troops.

The head tank began this cleanup operation with firing at the neighboring office block, from which the Syrian Army troops had been fired upon as early as the morning before. The storm squad moved on, afterwards.

The office blocks positioned ahead and to the right hand side of the head tank were occupied by the militants.  The head tank's crewmembers were trying to detect any movement on the enemy side. Meanwhile, the infantrymen inside the building provided their tanks with a barrage of fire cover. In this way, even if a terrorist with a grenade launcher had managed to fire a shot he would not have had the time for aiming.

The second tank was shielding the infantrymen from the road section that was controlled by the enemy. In a little while, the infantrymen were moving out to secure the first office building of the compound. Now, the fighting began inside the buildings. The battle progressed staircase by staircase and any single partition inside these buildings was another combat zone, another front line that had to be taken. And the room for maneuver was limited.

The tanks were firing from outside trying to destroy the militants’ barricades behind the walls of the buildings. The soldiers inside the two tanks and the one armored personnel carrier were seeking the movements of the militants inside the buildings. At one moment, our friend Hussain had spotted some movement on the second floor. Everything was set for a duel between a terrorist grenade launcher and the tank.

In slow motion replay, it can be seen that the tank’s gun barrel was moving to the left when suddenly the tank’s gunner spotted a flash of movement. The grenade shows up and the shot is fired. The militant missed his target. The terrorists are now one grenade launcher less.
The camera on the second tank had captured the trace of the projectile and flying fragments of the grenade.



Marat Musin, Vasily Pavlov, Igor Nadyrshin, Victor Kuznetsov, Andrey Filatov.


ANNA-News. Damascus.