RT crew comes under mortar fire near Damascus

According to Phelan, several mortar shells were fired in the direction of the crew when they stopped in the town to assess developments, before moving to the town of Jobar, which is right on the frontline.

The journalists said they had been targeted deliberately and that one of the shells landed as close as 5 meters from them. They said it was not immediately clear who was responsible, but they suspect that militants had tracked their movements and shelled them as soon as they stopped their vehicle. The crew quickly abandoned the area.

Harasta has seen intensive fire in the past few days, where the government forces were fighting against the Al-Nusra Front, the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda.

The lives of RT journalists were also at risk in Syria last month, when a crew was caught in the crossfire between government forces and rebels in the city of Zabadani, near the capital. Lizzie Phelan and other members of the RT film crew had to flee under rebel sniper fire on that occasion.

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Several RT crews are covering the Syrian conflict from the ground, reporting on the ongoing Russian aerial campaign to find human stories of Syrians caught in the four-year-long war, and are going close to the frontline to witness the aftermath of clashes between the Syrian army and insurgent groups.