The battles might have ended here but the work of the soldiers isn't!
In this remote location on the outskirts of Qatana the main city in the south western countryside of Damascus, the insurgents' plan to impose a siege on the Syrian capital faced a dead end.
We escorted units of the Syrian army and military security as they carried out search operations in the fields they cleared from insurgents.
The Syrian army's stationed units near Qatana took preemptive strikes against insurgents, seizing many of their hideouts before they can move out of it, like this bunkered room under the ground.
Qatana city was one of the strong-points for the foreign backed militants for many reasons ; it's geographic location near Lebanese borders, its proximity to Damascus and the fact that it was one of the first cities to witness antigovernment protests. All that combined with the huge area of fields surrounding it which was a great natural hideout, made the military's mission here extremely difficult.
Villagers know that rooms like this one is used to store grains that farmers would get out of their lands but this room was used for a different purpose, if you take a look at this hole right here it was used to store weapons and because the walls are easy to come off the insurgents used to store weapons inside these walls this one here and the one over there and when the army stormed this place it found this weapons storage.
The soldiers are on the lookout for anything suspicious, because nothing is what it seems to be at this time of war. No house is left unchecked even empty ones and no stone unturned.
One of the main factors of the success of the Syrian army in maintaining control over this area is the good relation it has with the local community, in his daily patrols the commanding officer checks not only on his troops but also on the residents.
The success of Army operations in places like Qatana gives a good example to be followed in the future, maintaining stability in former insurgent's strongholds through vigilance and work with the local community.
This is what is left of the insurgent's main command center in Qatana area the Syrian army is moving ahead from this area to complete its operation here.
http://www.presstv.ir/Originally collected by
fetching...
(
less)