Posted on 02/12/2018 11:53:29 PM PST by vikingrinn
The Conflict Intelligence Team found the Russians "may have fought alongside pro-Russia separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine prior to joining the fight against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) and other insurgents challenging Assad's rule in Syria." The group also found Russians killed "appeared to have joined the Wagner Group, a private paramilitary company, before traveling to fight in Syria. Last October, ISIS released a video showing two Russian-speaking men the militants claimed to have captured, and subsequent research showed the two men were likely Wagner Group members fighting in Syria." "While the total number of 'Wagner' operatives killed in Coalition airstrikes is unlikely to ever be established, it is beyond doubt that this incident indeed took place."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
Russia is using ISIS as cover for their real plans to undermine U.S. in the long run.
Thankfully we have a better President now and Putin’s petulant childishness will backfire. As will his ally Iran.
And whats with the Viking fetish of so many Putin-bots on FR?
Your pro Assad, pro Iran, pro Putin, pro Erdogan sympathies will win you favor in many Muslim forums.
This military campaign isn't even legal by our own standards, unless Congress issued a formal declaration of war that I'm not aware of.
I think we are keeping balance of semi-involvement and distance...but will not stop Israel from defending itself against Iran crossing red lines in Syria. And that is only just one of the latest scuffles in the mess Putin is overseeing.
And not to be outdone by Iran, Turkey’s decided to have some sick fun too.
180 civilians killed in Turkish military operation in Syria’s Afrin
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-02/13/c_136970746.htm
you can stop right there.
putin-bot? wtf sort of - you seem more aligned with (closet muslim) brennan and mccain et al. with such rhetoric! my rationale is to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past over and over again (hussein/gaddafi recent enough for your recollection?) and create another uncontrollable vacuum of entanglement...
while i cannot explain others motivation, sorry to have seemingly offended you with my choice of user id. my pseudonym has been with me *decades* as a product of family heritage, as is my given name, and i’ll have none of your preposterous maligning. while you may have momentarily allowed your history to be relegated to a single month, that is a reversible choice - write/call your representatives, and join the rest of us americans in the broader canvass of history again at any time!
Erdogan is at war against Assad, Iran, the Kurds, and Putin.
1) I did not vote for Romney in 2012...almost Ron Paul but abstained due to some reservations over social issues. Thank you Mr. Neocon-radar man (Putin by the way the Neo-connest of em all.)
2) Lover of Russian culture, land, and people.
But above all, lover of the Christian faith.
My biggest pet peeve is when people with no actual concern for Jesus claim Putin defends Jesus and his people.
(Hah! More like Putin corrupting the Russian Orthodox Church by appointing ex KGB to be its heads.)
Their legacy: Alienating formerly pro-Russian Orthodox Ukrainians for a generation - after antics in East Ukraine where a war is STILL going.
And don’t get me started on the “all Syrian Christians support Assad” LIE. Many have had to suffer under the sick and twisted torture of BOTH ISIS and Assad.
There are many Muslims though who support your sentiments.
How nice. Only a few weeks ago he was in Russia for a Syria Peace Summit. Maybe PMS?
The US practice of relying on their pals in the anti-Assad coalition for targeting intelligence isn't working out for anyone but the Muzzie scum the US helped arm, train, and fund.
Meanwhile the Kurds kick the butts of advancing Turks, a US airstrike takes out the Kurds who threw the Turks back, so hey, it's our good NATO allies the Turks who benefit from the US bombing Russians and from the US bombing the Kurds.
Seems to me that the the Turks who were buying the cheap oil ISIS and others were shipping out of Syria and the Muzzie scum who once sold it to the Turks have come up with a plan.
Putin’s “Little Green Men” (Russians under unofficial cover as mercenaries) were attacking US allies.
Now they are dead.
I think it is clear that more of the same, will get more of the same.
and those “little green men” were fighting... isis.
Yeah, you need a Middle-East cheat sheet to track the players.
Russia is allied with Assad in Syria who is allied with Iran and fighting ISIS.
The Kurds are fighting against ISIS, Assad, and Erdogan.
Erdogan has no allies. Turkey is a NATO member state but the NATO charter doesn’t cover offensive actions in other nations. Turkey is Arabic+Islamic Sunni so the Iranians (Persians+Shi’ite) hate them.
Turkey hates the Kurds, hates Assad, hates the Russians (shot down a Russian MiG), hates Israel, and hates Iran.
There have been many peace summits in many places including some or all of the above players.
Often they would leave out Obama while he was in Office. Trump had a guy at the last one or one before, I think.
and those “little green men” were fighting... the Kurdish-led SDF - the single ground force that has done more to defeat ISIS, than everyone else in Syria combined.
The heroes of Kobane, and the liberators of Raqqa.
And now, the killers of little green men. Those Kurds loved to sing old Russian songs, and went to Moscow to open offices, and thought the Russians were their old comrades.
But now Putin suddenly withdraws his air cover and invites the Turks to come massacre those Kurds in Afrin (Man, Woman and child, using former ISIS fighters to torture prisoners to death). Then he tries to attack the oil fields, hoping they have been drawn away. That cost a couple of generations worth of Russian credibility to be sacrificed, for those stabs in the back.
That open desert is no place to send your own boys Mr. Putin - it is like shooting fish in a barrel out there, hard to miss them. It is sad to waste them like that, and have to explain to their mothers why you did. Send us tasty Iranians instead.
please, go further than the typical hearst/disney demographic:
“and instead join russia in achieving filicide of isis... “
I suspect none of the players in this game are really interested in Isis. Isis provides the public reason. But the real reasons are, and this isn’t an inclusive list, a warm water port for Russia, Russia trying to influence events, Iran trying to develop a secure route to Lebanon to attack Israel, Assad trying to cling to power, The Saudis wanting a pipeline to the Mediterranean, The US trying to gain influence and thwart the other’s goals, Turkey wanting an ethnic cleansing of the Kurds as well as ownership of Syrian oil...the list goes on and on. But Isis is just the reason the world will happily accept.
“We are the friends of democracy everywhere, but the custodians only of our own.” — John Adams.
We need to get out of Syria, Iraq, etc., TOTALLY.
The US does not have a dog in that fight.
So, they were not Russian soldiers, but just Russian citizens that were mercenaries.
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