Syria, Homs: Reporting from the Front

Yesterday evening, Vesti.ru has published a current front-reporting from the Syrian city of Homs by their correspondent in Syria, Anastasia Popova.

This correspondent jumps with the soldiers of the Syrian army loose flaky through the forward positions and makes some comments on the recent operation, in which a small command post of the armed rebel was turned off.

Result: one dead and four rebel prisoners, one dead and several wounded Syrian soldiers.

Below the translation of parts of the published report from the Syrian city of Homs, without own commentaries.

A small comment by the Blogger (see source below) will follow later in the evening and will also get published by us.

Source: Vesti.ru

Syria, Homs: Reporting from the Front

From minute 0:11:

The ceasefire is over. The armed fighters have refused to lay down their weapons, and entrench themselves still in abandoned houses. You’d think the easiest way would be to shoot at them from tanks, but instead of this, the Syrian soldiers carry out selective purges. Within the district one os able to meet, albeit very rarely, still some peaceful civilians – those, who simply have nothing left, where they could go.

Civilian (old man named Abu Adnan) at minute 00:28:

Where should I go for? I have no relatives. What have I done evil against these fighters, that they have destroyed all my walls? Well, at least, it is good, that the soldiers supply me, they bring me bread.

Photos, toys, icons – this was once a Christian neighborhood. Now, the splinters of the formerly peaceful life lie anywhere around. We go through the houses, from the room through the kitchen, and from there directly to the ascent of the neighboring house. The most difficult part, however, is the street.

Anastasia Popova at minute 00:53:

One has to run over this street…

Someone at minute 01:01:

Let’s go!

Text at minute 01:10:

There is a message that one soldier was wounded.

The bullet from a sniper has hit him in the head. The 26-year-old Captain of the Syrian army died on the way to hospital. (X-ray picture of the skull with a bullet in the back of the head)

At the hospital beds, there are dozens of regular soldiers with amputated arms and legs, with wounds from splinters and from firearms.

Text at minute 01:34:

In the arsenal of the armed rebels, there are also modern precision weapons – American and Israeli infantry rifles that are able to make fatal hits even at a distance of several thousand meters, French aiming device (optical p.), machine guns, grenade launchers, anti-tank weapons.

The Syrian army is defending itself with heavy machine guns, grenade launchers and Kalashnikovs, and conquered foot by foot the floor of the insurgents. Among themselves they call this city already “Stalingrad”.

Anastasia Popova at minute 02:02:

Here, one is able to see, in what the center of Homs has transformed. Right now, here is a fighting for every house.

The purpose of this advanced unit is to arrive at a house where, according to information of the intelligence, is a temporary command post of the armed rebels.  One reaches this point – or rather crawls to this point – at best by night, in order to remain unnoticed by the rebels as much as possible.

Anastasia Popova at minute 02:17:

At night, the purges arrive at an active phase. You can hear the gunfire yourself. The military personnel are moving cautiously from house to house, they check each step to make no mistake. (The camera man) Turn it off, turn it off!

Text at minute 02:30:

By tentative move, we go on our way forward through the destroyed houses and take a stand at a strategic point in a high house, from where one has the whole neighborhood in mind. A bullet flies our camera man past, just an inch, and hits a metal railing.

Three soldiers were wounded in the shoulder.

Camera man at minute 02:47:

Sniper fire – this is the worst! This shot missed me, I only was lucky. If he would have hit 5 inches deeper, we would not able to talk any longer.

Now we are not able to progress any further. We stay in the tower and wait till the gunfire dies down. It continues at dawn. The previously designated first house with the gunmen is 1,000 m away from us.

Anastasia Popova at minute 03:13:

The Syrian soldiers have arrived at the house, where the rebel fighters had entrenched themselves – just a day after the operation has started. It was just reported that there are some people still holding the position, in a moment… (The sound of gunfire drowned out the reporter)

Text at minute 04:02:

An American machine gun, Israeli hand grenades and explosives – for the ordinary soldiers already a usual prey. An armed fighters was liquidated on the spot, another one was arrested. Three more have been caught in the yard, at a pickup truck with a self-made armored shield, and an anti-aircraft gun, mounted on the roof.

Currently it is not possible to prevent the influx of armed fighters to Syria. Some 10,000 gunmen have now crossed the border from Lebanon, and they try to go along their way, in order to get to Homs.

 

Anastasia Popova, Mikhail Witkin, Evgeny Lebedev – Vesti. Homs, Syria.

Source: apxwn.blogspot.de


You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes