Syria Update: Splitting Jobar from Zamalka (Part 7)

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Syria Update: Splitting Jobar from Zamalka (Part 7)

12 November 2013



(Transcreation)



Damascus has a suburb named Jobar, where the Syrian army had sieged terrorist-held high-rise buildings for some time. Located just west of the town of Zamalka, Jobar neighborhood has become a scene of some dramatic events, which eventually were to culminate in recapturing of the strategic buildings by the Syrian troops.

This was the day when the long-awaited decisive storming of the high-rise buildings – which allowed the militants to control the city’s South Ring Road – was supposed to take place. The inevitable takeover of the buildings would allow Syrian army to regain control of the bypass and eventually separate the militant defense lines in Jobar from the defense positions of the militants, entrenched in Zomalka. The terrorists in the high-rise buildings had pledged by that time that the SAA troops would not capture those buildings and that all the attacks by the Syrian army would be rebuffed.

We had arrived in Jobar long before the sunrise. Mere minutes were left before the storming of the buildings was to begin. Syrian army troops were in place and ready for action. Accompanied by SAA Captain Khaled, I proceeded to my position at an improvised observation point.

A Syrian Army battle tank was the first to enter combat. The tank’s crewmembers were Bashar and Vasim. They volunteered for this mission after their friend Nimir – tank driver –, had been killed some time before on this very spot, which was now designated as their tank’s firing point.

The tank crewmembers were continually receiving targets’ data from the infantrymen. Mere 10 meters away from the militant defense positions, the infantrymen on the ground kept visual contact with the militants and relayed their positions to the tank. The high intensity of fires from the tank and the infantry would not give the militants a chance to strike back upon the tank.

The militants were sticking to the same combat tactic that had helped them before. They were trying to strike the tank blind by firing upon its optical devices and shoot at it with an anti-tank missile afterwards.

The dust clouds seemed to make it impossible to see their target, but militant snipers kept firing nonetheless at the tank hoping to disrupt its optics. The tank was promptly responding with fire.

In a little while, the tanks were rolling back. However, the infantrymen were calling in for more support. Another tank was rolling in to join the battle, shortly. It fired a shot and immediately rolled back for cover.

After having demolished the militant defense positions, the tanks rolled back giving way to 2S3 Akatsiya 152-mm self-propelled howitzers, which were supposed to destroy the militant in-depth defenses, which had been used by the terrorists as shelters inside the buildings during the tank fire.

The first howitzer fired a shot to clear the way for its subsequent firing position.

SAA commanding officer was speaking on the phone: “We started storming the high-rise buildings in the early morning… I hope we’ll seize them today.”

We returned to our improvised observation point and saw the sunrise from there.

The first assaulting troops entered the first left-hand side high-rise building. We knew that the first right-hand side high-rise building was already in control of the Syrian army. The terrorist fire now posed the main danger from the residential area immediately adjacent to the high-rise buildings. Syrian army tanks were engaging the enemy there.

Having taken the first building, the infantrymen secured the immediate area in order to make sure they could move on towards the residential area houses. We decided to follow the assaulting troops.

We could hear the SAA commanding officer speaking on the phone: “That’s it! Everything is fine! We have seized four buildings already. We’re moving forward.”





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



ANNA-NEWS, Damascus.