Tunnels: Regime’s new technique against rebels in Damascus suburbs

(Reporting by Zeina AL Chofi; Translation by Yusra Ahmed)

(Zaman Alwasl)- It is well known that fighters have relied on tunnels to achieve much important operation against regime. The most important ones were exploding TAMECO building in Mleiha and vehicle administration in Harasta.

It seems that regime has started using the same technique in its war against fighters, as it managed to explode many buildings in Jobar through tunnels, besides digging around 20 tunnels in Daraya within only 4 months. Activists revealed that fighters have discovered a tunnel of 75 meters length in the north front of Daraya, reached from regime's points to posterior lines of fighters.

It is estimated that regime had manged to dig around 20 tunnels, however fighters managed to destroy and pile 10 of them, but still regime can benefit from the rest. Most discovered tunnels did not exceed 20 meters, except two were longer than 70 meters.

The latest discovered tunnel resulted in killing two fighters from Daraya, after clashes and firing between regime’s forces and fighters, but in the end fighters managed to destroy and fill the tunnel.

“Regime has used tunnels tactic for a while as part of its scorched earth policy to control Daraya”, Mohannad Abo Azzin commented on the subject. Moreover, Abo Azzin finds that digging tunnels strategy has become a significant part of regime’s plans to control Daraya, especially in the last 4 months.

Abo Azzin details that regime tries to dig tunnels at the front lines and contact points with fighters, which have no more than 10 meters distance, to manage to reach to fighters’ areas to mine and explode them. “Doing that would increase the distance between fighters and regime, besides hardening the fighters’ advance and will make it more difficult as they consume time and resources.”

Abo Azzin was cautious in explaining the methods of discovering tunnels as they considered war secrets, but he explained that sometimes fighters get to know about the tunnels from the sound of digging machines.