Syria Update: Splitting Jobar and Zamalka of Damascus (Part 4)

Syria Update: Splitting Jobar and Zamalka of Damascus (Part 3)

Heavy fighting continues to secure strategic high-rise buildings which are being used by the militants to control the south beltway. No considerable advance have been made by the Syrian troops lately. The marksmen kept skimming the city ruins and taking out militants while machinegun personnel would simply shoot at anything that moved.

The Syrian troops’ primary mission now is to help their infantry to close up with the high-rise apartment blocks by sneaking through the adjacent blocks of the densely built residential area. The ANNA News crewmembers were not invited there for safety reasons. The Syrian Arab Army soldiers engaged in this intensive room-by-room urban warfare are normally just a few partitions away from the terrorists. Very often, a faintest sound coming through the wall to the next room is enough to provoke fire. Meanwhile, sappers constantly disarm a large number of mines inside the buildings.

We have witnessed how a casualty was radioed in and mere three minutes later a wounded soldier was brought in by infantry fighting vehicle (IFV). Fifteen minutes later he is going to be in the medical center. While transporting the wounded soldier, the IFV suddenly was engaged by enemy fire. Nobody was injured. Another IFV moved out to engage and destroy the enemy firing point.

Upon marking the militants’ firing points, Syrian troops report them to their commanding officers and after that Syrian tanks enter the battle. The fire strikes were delivered in three separate directions. Two tanks were engaging the enemy by the marks provided by the Syrian infantry, while another two were separating the enemy defense lines pushing the militants away from the advancing infantry and on to the right flank, deeper into the residential area.

Inside the buildings, enemy firing points are fortified with sandbags and various building materials. As soon as the infantrymen find themselves engaged with enemy fire from such heavily fortified positions, they immediately call in for fire support.

The intensity of the battle can be best attested for by the nonverbal communication carried out between the militants and the Syrian troops. As soon as the tank finished firing and rolled back, the militants opened machinegun fire. What sense does it make to shoot at a heap of rubble? Perhaps, they wanted to show that they could not be got.

The militants abandoned five low storied buildings. Demining operation there has already begun.

Contributors: Marat Musin, Igor Nadyrshin, Andrey Filatov, Victor Kuznetsov.

ANNA-News, Damascus