By Wassim Essa
On Friday, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) captured the bus station in Harasta district east of the Syrian capital Damascus according to the Hezbollah media wing in Syria. The SAA also continued its operations around the Armored Vehicles Base in order to secure its positions inside the base.
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Meanwhile, warplanes of the Syrian Arab Air Force (SyAAF) conducted dozens of airstrikes against the positions of the Ahrar al-Sham Movement, Faylaq al-Rahman, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and Jaysh al-Islam in the districts of Irbin, Harasta, Duma, Hamouriyah, Madira and Mesraba, according to local sources.
In a response, the militant groups shelled several civilian districts in the eastern part of Damascus city. Syrian pro-government activists said that at least four civilians were injured in the shelling.
From its side, Syrian oppositions sources reported that the Ahrar al-Sham Movement and its allies repelled another attack of the SAA around the Armored Vehicles Base. The sources claimed that Ahrar al-Sham fighters destroyed a T-72 tank of the SAA and killed several Syrian soldiers during the clashes around the base.
The recent offensive operations of the SAA in Harasta district confirm that the SAA is now working to capture the entore district, not just to secure the Armored Vehicles Base south of it.
This eastern Damascus part is a meat grinder. I’m sure the Tiger forces will be finished in Idlib before there is any significant progress made in eastern Damascus.
The Islamist Jihadis always lie about losses and very rarely report any true claims as these are supposed to bolster a falling morale everywhere. The tunnels are everywhere there and they do go to ground after heavy losses as usual and end up losing some of the ground and access to the tunnels afterwards. Tigers keep grabbing troops from here to fill the flanks of there advance as they are the closest and this isn’t a priority for manpower as it is a meat grinder for both sides.
The area is not meant to be pacified yet since it draws on resources elsewhere from the Islamist Jihadis.
It has been frustrating for me too, to observe the apparent lack of progress by the SAA in this region. I don’t understand why, if the SAA have them surrounded, they don’t try attacking from different directions? They always seem to attack from the west, to no avail. Could it be the SAA are concerned about civilian casualties if they attacked from other directions?
They don’t want to focus on so much bloody urban effort to liberate a few districts. Better to engage the islamists in open ground in Idlib and destroy them there while liberating huge areas.
And earlier there was ISIS.
Oh, and they have focused on pockets and liberated them before many times, but this pocket is huge in population and a very built up area. And the groups in eastern Ghouta don’t kill each other as much as the Idlibistan groups.
The terrorists are holding on because of their mobility thanks to an intricate netwrok of underground tunnels which also protect them from the Syrian government air force. The Syrian government forces have two options in such a scenario. 1. Use the same tactic building tunnels leading behind enemy lines. 2. Flood the whole area and drown the foreign mercenary terrorist scum in their underground grave yards. As they say, if you cannot do it with fire, do it with water.
3. they can wait 50 years until all jihadists are dead. 4. arm Santa Claus and use him next Christmas to eradicate all jihadists in Duma pocket 5. wait until jihadists leave for SA on haj and then clean the pocket 6. arm all the donkeys in the area and trigger explosives when the poor things are being sodomised by the jihadists again… there is a plethora of options available to Syr Gov one just need to be capable of lateral thinking
Burn them with fire like old napalm or thermobaric, let them choke with smoke or get burned alive, syria had much oil to make napalm and burn this cocroach alive
They need to use RU trained military sniffer dogs like they use them in Lebanon.
That’s a strange camo pattern in the pic.
Looks similar to SDF pattern
Is it made by SDF or does SDF buy them from someone else?
No idea bro. SDF is mostly supplied by US I think? So uniforms are probably made in China ha!
I ever watch on video somewhere, when saa capture a jihadist stronghold at town they got many roll camo fabric, maybe they use them to make camo bdu from that