ANNA News - Battle Tanks in Action in Al-Kabune - 3
We moved on. Right above our heads, to the left of and behind us, there were defense positions of the militants. I wanted to raise my camera above the fence but before I could do that I was warned that we were literally risking our lives by staying in that place. If the militants had spotted us there, a hand grenade could have landed at our feet at any given moment. We could be in real trouble there.
SAA Officer: “The house that is right behind the lamp post… That’s where they are!”
Having pinpointed the mission objective, the SAA commanding officers issued the tank men orders to get down to work. The tank was going to take its firing position right on the bridge to engage the enemy which meant that the vehicle would be in plain view of the militants. That is why the new combat mission had to be accomplished within a limited time span by quickly rolling in and delivering the strikes and just as quickly rolling out.
SAA Officer: “Stop laying the smokescreen! Fire! Put the second round in the same spot! Fire! That’s it! Get out!”
After the combat mission had been accomplished we moved on to another spot. We tried to keep our heads down again, but militant sniper fire was not that much of our concern any more.
Now, it was time for Akatsiya [152.4 mm self-propelled artillery] to do some work. Our friend Ali is famous for his artillery sniper skills. The militants are said to have been complaining on their Internet forums that Syrian army artillery fire strikes are very accurate. Ali should be given a fair amount of credit for that fact.
[While on the move, we were passing by] that what has been left of Jobar neighborhood ever since the militants had taken the area. Nothing left there but the ruins! When entering into a city block, the militants - in defiance of all private property laws - have made it a habit to confiscate local residents’ houses and turn the structures into defense line fortifications. If they refused to give up their homes, the local people would face death threats.
SAA Officer: “That is the target. It can be engaged perfectly from here. That is the place where, when they put their marksmen over there, they can control all the highway. We need to destroy those firing positions, all of them.”
Having pinpointed their targets, the artillery crew set out to take their seats in the vehicle.
So, we were moving along the highway. The artillerymen were pounding the defense positions of the militants and we were filming the process for our documentary.
The intensity of artillery fire also depended on how heavy the highway traffic was at that moment. Every command to fire the next round was issued only when it posed no danger to civil transport.
That was all the work we had planned to do that day. According to their radio messages, the militants had taken losses. It was crucial though that he road was not fired upon any more that day by the militant snipers.
Andrey Filatov, Victor Kuznetsov, Marat Musin. ANNA-News. Damascus, Syria
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