Syria Update: Tank Attack in Jobar

Syria Update: Tank Attack in Jobar

26 October 2013



Jobar, which historically was a village on the outskirts of Damascus, is a suburb in the east of the capital city. Recently, it has been the site of fierce fighting. Syrian Arab Army soldiers have captured five of the local house buildings. As a result, the militants have been driven out of their previous defense positions they used to keep under direct fire the traffic on the 6th Tishreen highway.

Although, today an increased activity has been spotted on the militants’ side. That area – controlled by the militants – subsequently received a preemptive artillery strike by the Syrian army. In the course of the ensued tank battle, one tank of the Syrian Army was set ablaze by a missile; the tank driver was killed in the attack. The militants’ casualties’ number was about a hundred.

Shortly after the artillery strike, the tanks moved in into their firing positions and began engaging their respective targets. The militants used underground tunnels to get into the buildings on the right flank. A network of underground passageways interconnected all the structures on the right hand-side of the alley and part of the buildings on the left.

The SAA tanks crewmembers were engaging the enemy from both flanks. The Syrian army infantrymen, fighting inside the buildings, were relaying the target coordinates to the tank crewmembers. Inside the buildings, there were terrorist barricades the tanks were demolishing by firing at them directly through the buildings’ front walls.

The carcasses of the busses standing nearby the roadside served as good handy armor protection to the tanks against enemy missiles. The tank crewmember’s job was to fire and immediately pull back away from the line of fire.

Despite the heavy losses on their side, the terrorists would steadily put up their resistance. Replacing the dead, new militants keep coming in from Zamalka neighborhood. Ammunition was being supplied to them from that same area, as well.

Having finished engaging their respective targets, the two tanks moved away from the battlefield. Another pair of tanks moved in.

Given the tank fire intensity, coupled with tank crewmembers’ agility, it was impossible for the terrorists to fire upon the tanks. The militants’ grenade launcher operators were either too scared to look out for aiming at the tanks or perhaps they were being slain before they had a chance to shoot. For the militants, all that was left to do was cue in the fire of their mortars, which kept scattering bombs upon the Syrian army troops from inside the Jobar area.

Among the billows of smoke, it was important not to miss a terrorist grenade launcher. That is why good troop coordination was key. All the while, the infantrymen kept visual contact with the enemy troop movement, provided target data to the tanks, and engaged possible firing points of the terrorist grenade launchers.

After having fired all its rounds, one of the tanks would leave the battle scene. Another one then took its place. At that moment, the infantrymen had a number of their soldiers wounded. The tanks then would be supposed to provide cover to assist the evacuation process.




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

ANNA-News Agency, Damascus.