Members of the Free Syrian Army operating in Damascus, Syria conduct an RPG attack against a sandbagged machinegun position of the Syrian Arab Army.

While this video does show members of the Free Syrian Army scoring a direct hit with an RPG against a heavily fortified machine gun position, what it also shows us is an example of how not to engage the enemy with an RPG. Rocket propelled grenades, like almost every rocket system, are recoilless weapons. The force of the rocket is expelled out of the back end of the launcher tube, causing something commonly known as backblast.

When you're inside of a building, especially a building covered in debris, the backblast of a rocket propelled grenade can create secondary shrapnel. When you're inside, there's nowhere for that shrapnel to go except inside of the room you're currently standing in. Firing a rocket like this will not only absolutely demolish your ear drums, while possibly giving you a serious concussion, it will also get you a shrapnel injury from debris flying at a high rate of speed around the room you're standing in.

So, really good initiative by these guys, but also very bad judgement as well. They probably learned their lesson.