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We are in Barzeh, a district of Damascus,
waiting for an opportunity to visit Syrian Arab Army frontline positions at this front.
We're watching a bomb strike being done at the discovered bunch of militants from above so far.
Barzeh is an old district of Damascus,
its population has counted roughly forty thousand people before militants came.
The district's build-up has various height.
Militants have marked themselves here last winter
by striking at self-defense squads' back.
Terrorists have started firing upon the roads immediately and tried to capture the hospital.
They've been gathering in this area covertly,
accumulated weapons and prepared numerous underground passages and saps.
Syrian Arab Army soldiers have started the attack forward towards there from here at one o'clock in the night.
Moved forward for roughly 150 meters.
It was very hard given the build-up density.
But militants have retreated.
Positions are taken today. Soldiers are entrenching themselves.
And the operation will be continued this night most probably.
This tunnel, this tunnel has been found several days ago.
Militarymen have changed the local river's bed a bit, flooded it
and militants couldn't use it.
Left the positions because there was no ammunition and weapons supply.
"Sniper fires upon this side, be careful!"
We go further along the soldiers' advancement path.
This is a militant names list and their places at positions.
Many houses have burned out completely.
Militants have burned them while retreating so as to delay infantrymen.
One has to bow down and be very careful here as this is the frontline.
This is the frontline, there's a lot of terrorist firing points there.
"Lots of them there!"
"Lots of militants there!"
"They're hidden by ruins"
"Firefights happen here all the time"
"There are enemies everywhere in front"
"All of this is the militant defense line"
"There's no one in this house"
"And there are their positions in the next one behind the fence"
"We'll attack it when the guys have a rest and will finish them off today"
Militants use improvised explosive devices like this.
It's some pipe, maybe a water one, unwound, explosives put inside, and a fuse. 40 00:06:27,00 --> 00:02:69,00 Lots of these are found here.
"Militant snipers fire upon us from that high-rise building constantly"
"They have lots of firing points there"
"Be careful, don't lean out here!"
"Do not lean out too much!"
"There are enemies in this building to the right"
"We've attacked these houses yesterday's night and destroyed several militants defending there"
"Took [their] weapons, freed all of those buildings"
"We've destroyed several bandits here and will continue the attack soon"
"We're with the people and will defend till the end"
"We fight together with President against terrorism"
"These houses were controlled by Al Nusra Front militants and al-Islam al-Liva regiment"
"We've freed these buildings, God willing"
"Enemies right in front of us"
"Run fast here"
"Do not delay"
Smell of baked potatoes and fresh tea has pointed to the place where soldiers are resting after attack.
"Our unit has freed three houses in the night"
"This was a quick attack upon terrorist positions"
"One soldier was killed here unfortunately"
"We're having rest but then we will continue the attack"
"We've attacked successfully in Barzeh today, killed many mercenaries"
"We've heard militants talking during the attack"
"They spoke bad Arabic"
"Clear accents from Caucasus and Afghanistan are heard"
Soldiers will go to battle in a few hours again.
Andrey Filatov, Victor Kuznetsov, Grigory Nesterov, Marat Musin. ANNA-News. Damascus.