Silence broken by sniper shots: Midan in Damascus

DAMASCUS: Black smoke billowed from ruined homes and three bloodied corpses lay on Friday in a square in Midan, the Damascus district retaken by regime forces early in the day after fierce firefights with rebels.
The Syrian military escorted journalists in two armored personnel carriers into Midan in the south of the Syrian capital after saying it had “cleaned” the district of “terrorists” — a term the regime uses to describe rebel fighters.
In Assakhane Square an AFP reporter saw three rebels sprawled lifeless alongside a pick-up truck mounted with a heavy machine gun and a vehicle loaded with a rocket launcher.
The military said the square had been the site of fierce fighting, and thick black smoke still pillared skywards from several completely destroyed apartments.
A death-like silence in Midan was broken only by the crackle of intermittent gunfire.
“There are still some snipers,” a soldier said. “We will remove them.”
Rebel slogans were still scrawled across the walls of several buildings.
“Protect the revolutionary Midan! We will not kneel! Homs is strong, but Deir Ezzor bleeds!“
Further signs of the heavy struggle for control of the neighborhood were seen as journalists were taken through the district.
It was evident that several apartments had been occupied by rebels. The stench of spilled blood was still strong there, and many affluent-looking buildings had been abandoned, the only sign of life being clothes strewn around.
The stink of spent powder filled the air, and a minaret at the neighborhood’s Al-Majid mosque had been pierced by a shell. Two armored personnel carriers mounted with heavy machine guns were stationed outside the mosque.
The building was at the focus of the fighting as it had been a regular site for anti-regime demonstrations on Fridays.
On a nearby grocery stall, potatoes, tomatoes and onions rotted under the hot sun.
Several ransacked stores clearly indicated that traders had fled in panic with no time even to close their shops. An abandoned sports shoe shop was littered with shards of broken glass.
The facades of several buildings were riddled with bullets or had been shattered by shellfire.
There was no sign of any civilians in Midan, just some soldiers still wearing helmets and flak jackets as they lounged at a local barber’s shop.
One soldier said they were from the Republican Guard, the elite unit that now controls a neighborhood traditionally popular for selling sweets during the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
In one street an AFP reporter saw a bus had hit a traffic light and a minibus struck by an anti-tank rocket was completely burnt out. There was also an ambulance and an abandoned vehicle with UN stencilled on it.
State television had announced earlier on Friday that regime forces had “cleaned” the Midan area.
“Our brave army forces have completely cleaned the area of Midan in Damascus of the remaining mercenary terrorists and have reestablished security,” the broadcaster trumpeted.
One officer who declined to give his name said on television that “armed elements entered neighborhoods and attacked the residents, who begged us to rescue them. We began the recapture the day before yesterday, in the evening, and finished our work today (Friday) at dawn.”
For the first time since the conflict began more than 16 months ago, state television also broadcast footage it said showed the bodies of rebels killed in Damascus, without specifying in which district the footage was taken.
The Syrian military has said that a huge quantity of arms including rockets and communications equipment was also seized in Midan.