A recent video (above) posted on YouTube by the Abkhazian Network News Agency (ANNA) appearing to show the Syrian army engaged in battle with rebels in a Damascus suburb has offered a glimpse into the violence and destruction that continues to ravage Syria.
ANNA also posted a brief description to accompany the clip: "Syrian army's determined attack on the position of terrorists in Darayya. 02/27/2013."
Darayya, a rebel stronghold located near the capital, has been engulfed in fighting for several months. Last August, Reuters reported that Syrian opposition leaders and activists were accusing President Assad's army of "massacring scores of people" -- including women and children -- in Darayya. In mid-February, the Los Angeles Times reported that Assad's army had made continued attempts to capture the town but was being repelled by rebel fighters.
Though the veracity and timestamp of this ANNA video has yet to be verified, the relatively obscure news agency -- which posted more than 10 YouTube videos about Syria in the last week alone -- has been a voracious purveyor of insider YouTube footage of the Syrian civil war since 2012.
Earlier this year, for example, ANNA is said to have captured footage of a Russian judge named Sergey Berezhnoy getting shot while in Darayya.
A New York Times blog post that picked up the ANNA story and footage in January offered some interesting insights into why the news agency -- which claims to be based in Abkhazia -- has been so seemingly focused on Syria coverage. The Times' Robert Mackey and Ellen Barry speculated that ANNA may be pushing a pro-Assad agenda. (Read more about that here.)
For more footage from Darayya, watch the video (below), uploaded to YouTube by "SyriaTVOnline" on Feb. 14, that shows Assad's army sweeping the town for rebel fighters: