Preemptive Strike of the Battle Tanks

Preemptive Strike of the Battle Tanks

We have some job to do this
morning.  SAA commanding officers have received intelligence on a group
of terrorists that began to form in Al Kabune preparing for an assault
to breakthrough into the city. Decision was made to deliver preventive
strikes on the assault group of the terrorists there.

Today, the
striking fire power is going to be that of SAA battle tanks. SAA
infantry troops have already blocked the terrorists in the area and the
SAA tanks were supposed to strike the terrorist group rendering it
incapable of further combat actions.

The SAA commanding officers
set out to take their front line positions in order to coordinate the
future actions of the battle tanks in this combat operation. On their
way there, moving on foot, they had to cross the most dangerous areas by
running so as to avoid getting themselves hit by a terrorist sniper
bullet.

The building on the left hand-side was controlled by the
SAA. All the buildings on the right side of the highway, including those
running alongside the road, were controlled by the militants. Those
buildings [deeper inside the area] were also controlled by the
terrorists. Most probably, all the buildings in the area were
interconnected by a network of underground tunnels and bomb shelters.

Right
below us, there were residential area houses. That was the exact spot
from which the militants had planned to start their assault on the road
checkpoints and then infiltrate the central districts of Damascus city.
 That whole district in front of us has been turned into one
interconnected defense area. The buildings inside the area had a network
of secret passages, burrowed through their walls and partitions, as
well as underground shelters and tunnels. The militants had actively
employed their tactics of planting landmines in the immediate areas in
front of the buildings and to their entrances.

Such a heavy
fortification of defense area situated in a densely built urban
environment made it possible for the terrorists to remain relatively
safe during shelling periods. Tank fired rounds explode at contact with
the first or second wall partitioning of the building. The militants
were usually hiding behind several more partitioning walls inside the
buildings and were beyond the reach of the killing fragments of the
round explosions.

The militants also used the city’s civil
engineering communications facilities. They connected their underground
tunnels to the civil communications lines and used them for their
military purposes.

It was a difficult and dangerous task to drive
the well-trained militants from those fortified urban structures.  The
SAA battle tanks had to join the battle to destroy that grouping of
terrorists.

The head battle tank had survived a number of
previous anti-tank missile strikes on it. The black coloring of the
tank’s hull was the result of oil that was once spilled onto it when a
grenade severed the tank’s oil duct and the oil poured on top of the
tank rendering its men unable to defend themselves against more
terrorist rounds coming at them. The tank’s armor had saved them from
all the additional missile hits back then. Several days later, the tank
was back in action bearing the marks of that previous battle.

Looking
from the heights of the SAA commanding officers’ positions here, the
tanks’ mission seemed rather safe and easy to accomplish. But it looked
different on the ground. The potential threat was posed from every
single window, door, and opening in the buildings walls around. A
grenade launcher could be fired at the tanks from any of those buildings
at any moment.

Shortly after striking, the head tank rolled back
covering the second tank as it was moving forward to its firing
position. The second tank was concentrating its fire on a group of
two-storied buildings in the center of the defense area. According to
the available intelligence, that was the spot where the terrorists had a
kind of a bunker or an entrance to their underground tunnel there.

SAA Officer: “Shift your fire to the adjacent building. Go ahead! Strike!”

SAA Officer: “It was a mine of theirs exploding. Add a couple of rounds in there!”

Both
of the battle tanks were providing cover to each other, demonstrating a
great level of coordination in their actions. The tanks’
machine-gunners were spraying the area with suppressing fire in order to
make sure that no militant would be able to pop out during the tanks’
reloading.

SAA Officer: “Excellent strike! Take a little to the left, now! Just a little bit to the left!”

Judging
by their radio messages, the militants were clearly taking losses. They
demanded immediate evacuation of their wounded and dead. The tank
strikes have wreaked havoc in the terrorist ranks.

Every new
strike by the SAA battle tanks penetrated deeper into defense
fortifications of the terrorists increasing the number of their losses
and destroying their communications routs.

The militants’ plan of
a surprise attack has been disrupted and they have sustained heavy
losses. Having fulfilled their mission, the tanks returned to their home
base.


Andrey Filatov, Victor Kuznetsov, Marat Musin. ANNA-News. Damascus, Syria.