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Operation to recover the tank which has lost a track link goes on down there.
The space around tank is raked with fire by infantry
to deny militant grenade lauchers fire upon battle vehicle.
Syrian Arab Army officers can't observe from distance
and we head down to be at the place of the rescue operation.
Our way lies through the private sector.
Tortured houses are one of the faces of war.
Militants have turned residential area into deadly maze.
[Army] had to fight for every room to clean the town of them.
Every wall here is a milestone that had to be taken.
Militant sniper's round can come from the depth of the buildings.
Sniper bullet sounds are heard here constantly but no one pays attention to the danger.
All of them remember that the main task now is to save the tank.
I run across behind a wall and have a look around.
I understand that I might be visible to a militant sniper and hide under the remains of the stairs.
BREM armoured recovery vehicle crewmen
fasten the tow to start towing the damaged tank in spite of the danger.
Militant positions are 30 meters away.
They've retreated when Syrian Arab Army units attacked.
But they might return now making use of the moment and try to counterattack.
The tank makes a preemptive shot towards the militants when the tow has been fastened and evacuation starts.
I understand that my shelter can become a crypt
if 47 tons of uncontrolled tank ram the remains of the building.
Time to run away from here.
The tow breaks apart a few meters later. The second one got broken before.
BREM went for a new tow.
Infantrymen continue to cleanup the inner part of the buildings.
If the tank can support them with fire the strike doesn't take long.
Crew waits for new attempt to pull them out from this lane.
Any suspicious movement at militants' side gets shot.
The shockwave from tank fire has folded the nearby house.
Collapse of the building gave positive results: its ruins have covered the left side of the machine now.
Captain walks around the tank to inspect the situation from all sides.
BREM came. Everything starts again.
The damaged tank finally gets evacuated away from the frontline successfully.
Hussain's crew starts covering infantrymen who started cleaning up the last house near the highway
having covered towing of the damaged tank.
Commanders suggested that there might be another militant tunnel there.
The operation goes on.
Andrey Filatov, Igor Nadyrshin, Victor Kuznetsov, Vasily Pavlov, Marat Musin. ANNA-News. Damascus.