HARASTA (Syria) (Sputnik) — A week ago the Syrian Armed Forces launched a large-scale military operation to liberate the towns of Duma, Jobar and Harasta located eastward of Damascus that had been occupied by the terrorist groups for some three years.
A RIA Novosti correspondent became the witness of Syrian army's combat activity in the northern part of Harasta.
NIGHT ASSAULT
It was almost impossible to get to the assault position from Damascus, so we moved through an industrial area covered with the portraits of Syrian President Bashar Assad and the leader of Hezbollah movement, Hassan Nasrallah.
After a short briefing, the officers moved to the unit’s lines to give the orders to their soldiers. We moved forward under heavy fire to the building on the frontline with a group of mortarmen to specify the positions for the mortars.
After the deployment of mortars, the officer gave me a night vision device to look over the battlefield. As a result I could see that dense fire and bombs falling on the terrorists’ positions prevented enemies from serious retaliatory strike. During the battle, groups of soldiers from both sides started moving toward under cover of darkness and clashed in a close combat.
FLAG OVER HARAS
The active phase of the battle was finished at 4 a.m. local time and the soldiers returned to headquarters. The next stage of the operation was scheduled on the morning and all the tired warriors could sleep for a while.
After arriving to the commander’s position we were invited by a general to look how the Syrian warriors would plant a flag on the strategic Haras high ground. Haras controls both the road from Damascus and the towns of Jobar and Harasta.
“Our strategy is quiet easy. The enemy is hiding in the tunnels firing at us from the mortars and machine guns. Our soldiers conduct special operations on the enemy positions in a small groups. They mop up the enemy’s firing-posts and take control over the tunnels’ entrances. We support them with artillery and tanks,” the operation’s commander, Gen. Mahmoud, said, describing the army's strategy.
The soldiers that returned to the base reported about dozens of killed militants and only about a few wounded Syrian soldiers and militias during this operation.
Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011 with forces loyal to Assad fighting a number of terrorist groups, occupying vast territories of the country.
