125 men of various ranks served six 12-pounder field howitzers, six 32-pounder barbette guns, one 8 inches siege howitzer, one Coehorn mortar, one 10 inches mortar, and one 30-pounder Parrott rifle.
They were not supporters of the Syrian regime but the siege and mortar shelling turned the small, beautiful city on the banks of the Euphrates river into a battered maze of sniper alleyways.
The fort was armed with six 32-pounder barbettes, three 24-pounder field howitzers, four 8-inch siege howitzers, one Coehorn mortar, and one 4-inch rifled mortar.
They also laid siege to the city with mortar fire.
In total, during the first period of the siege, the attackers fired 2,975 shots from mortars and 1,531 from cannon, and the Swedes fired 399 mortar shots and 7,464 cannon shots; thus the Swedish fire outweighed the Russian fire.
She put white roses on seven chairs - each for a member of her family killed by mortar shells during the siege.
Mortars were useful for sieges, as they could fire over walls and other defenses.
Mortars were useful for sieges, as they could hit targets behind walls or other defences.
He also designed fortresses near Inverness and in Ayr, and directed the mortar fire at the siege of Stirling Castle in August 1651.
The rebel Free Syrian Army put up a strong fight in the face of "missile launchers, mortar shells, airstrikes. . . a strangling siege and a lack of all of the basic needs of life," it added.
