Syria Update: Hard Day for Tankers in Jobar! (Part Three)

[Translation]

Syria Update: Hard Day for Tankers in Jobar! (Part Three)

After providing cover to the damaged tank, towed away from the battlefield, the tankers proceeded to cover the infantrymen, who had started securing the last building near the highway. Syrian army commanding officers suggested that another underground tunnel of the terrorists could be located there. The SAA battle tanks were covering the infantry troops with smokescreens and machinegun fire.

A report came in that the infantry troops had detected some terrorist movement in Zamalka area. A battle tank to the left, standing nearby, had its transmission system broken down, so it could not engage the newly detected group of terrorists. Because of intensive use of the smokescreen device, a coating of diesel fuel accumulated on the camera lens. In short, the smoke is generated by diesel fuel that passes through the exhaust pipe and that turns into vapor when it comes out. The wind had blown that haze onto the camera, mounted on the tank. The camera’s lens first was covered with droplets of condensed liquid and later became soiled with a thick film of diesel fuel that rendered the camera out of focus.

When the infantry troops once again reported a detected group of terrorists, the tank moved out and fired on Zamalka. The damaged tank was staying in its place as a stationary firing point, to engage the militants in Zamalka. The other battle tank moved on to engage the detected militants.

Unfortunately, the camera was no longer capable of capturing a crisp picture. Nonetheless, the events that had taken place around those tankers ought to be included into the narrative of that war. That is why, despite its poor quality, the footage was used in this documentary. My own filming, from the elevated position, was sporadic for the danger of possible terrorist sniper fire. If a terrorist sniper had detected our position, my desire to get a good footage might have cost the lives of all of the people, who were present on that story of the building at the time.

As soon as the battle tank had approached the terrorist positions it was engaged by terrorist snipers. Their mark was the optics of the tank’s commanding officer. The tankers were engaging the militants, who were popping up in the building’s window frames, with machinegun fire. Subsequently, the tankers had spotted the terrorist position and steered their vehicle to engage the terrorists there. They had spotted a militant with grenade launcher and started aiming at him in order to fire the canon. The militant must have fretted and hastily fired the missile, which exploded before reaching the tank. The tank returned fire, leaving the militant no chance to get away with impunity.

The tank took control of that direction. It became clear that that particular section of the militant defenses had a special significance to them and the militants might certainly try to come to collect the bodies of their dead. Having spotted a terrorist movement there, the tank fired another round in that direction.

Suddenly, an anti-tank missile was fired upon the tank from Zamalka area on the left. Fortunately, the tankers were left unharmed. The missile had severed an oil pipe, though. The oil started leaking on the tank’s turret and the camera. The damage had rendered the tank immobile but the tankers decided not to leave the vehicle. They returned fire upon Zamalka, after that they turned their turret and proceeded to engage the militant positions ahead of them. They kept firing until they ran out of all their rounds and ammunition.

Then, the tankers reported that they had spotted militants with an anti-tank missile system. Upon receiving that information, the SAA Captain grabbed a machinegun and fired it upon the militants’ defense positions, marking the direction of further engagement for the infantry troops on the ground.

A militant movement was spotted somewhere in Zamalka and the area was immediately engaged by fire. A building, from which a missile had been fired against the tank, was now being pounded by artillery fire.

The oil leakage had rendered the tank particularly vulnerable to imminent militant strikes and the militants were already teaming up in the positions around it in order to destroy the tank by firing anti-tank missiles on it. According to the tankers, they clearly saw how one of the militants had his armor-piercing missile malfunctioned and he began to replace the grenade with another one. The tankers were not afraid to die. Nevertheless, they hoped that God and their army comrades would deliver them from that difficult situation…

(to be continued)