Spetsnaz GRU forces with Arab prisonerPosted on 02/04/2016 1:44:51 PM PST by Trumpinator
#Russian #spetsnaz troops on top of a brand new BTR-82A armored personnel carrier in #Syria
#RuAF pic.twitter.com/c1FqEjAWLO— khaled g.alkhateb (@KhaledgAlkhateb) January 29, 2016
#Russia special forces soldier in #Syria IDd as belonging to 45 #Spetsnaz Brigade recon unit https://t.co/ZNYJst2Wsc pic.twitter.com/3VlGDL7L2N— big el little ease (@elemcee69) January 30, 2016
Covert operations. Politeness wins. #russia #usa #airsoft #russianlivesmatter #evike #Spetsnaz pic.twitter.com/EesVHbYhTk— East Bloc-ВоÑток Б (@East_Bloc) January 31, 2016
Spetsnaz GRU forces with Arab prisoner
http://www.interpretermag.com/russian-military-intelligence-coordinating-syrian-iranian-attacks-on-rebels-spying-on-israel/
By May of 2013 there were whispers of a secret unit, Zaslon (or “Screenâ€), launching an operation in Syria. As Mark Galeotti, a specialist at New York University on Russia’s security services, observed in May 2013:
“Zaslon is perhaps the most secret of Russia’s many spetsgruppy or special forces detachments. It is part of the SVR, the Foreign Intelligence Service — specifically its Directorate S, responsible for undercover operations. Formed in 1998, Zaslon is tasked with covert missions abroad ranging from protecting officials in dangerous environments to conducting assassinations. It numbers some 280 operators, who are trained and equipped to the highest standards.
“Unlike most Russian special forces, Zaslon does not publicize its activities or even its existence. They have sometimes supplemented embassy security details in especially dangerous conditions; indeed, they provided security for former SVR director Mikhail Fradkov when he visited Damascus last year. They are typically used for more direct operations, though. Zaslon was rumored to be part of the operation to assassinate insurgents who kidnapped and killed four Russian diplomats in Iraq in 2006, for example, and they may be ready to free captured Russian military advisers.
However, according to one Russian report, two Zaslon elements were also deployed to Baghdad in the dying days of the Hussein regime. Their mission was to seize or destroy documents which Moscow would have found embarrassing had they ended up in U.S. hands. Given the scale and depth of Russian support for Assad, it could similarly be that they are also in Syria to cover Moscow’s tracks or else ensure that sensitive military technology — including new surface-to-air systems — does not end up in foreign hands.â€
In January, 2013, a Russian judge, Sergey Aleksandrovich Berezhnoy, was shot in the face by Syrian rebels while purportedly “on vacation†in Syria, albeit a working vacation since he was escorting a team from the pro-Assad Abkhazian Network News Agency (ANNA) as it reported on regime-on-rebel fighting near Damascus. A manager for ANNA described Berehnoy as having “fought for five years as an intelligence officer in Abkhazia and in other hot spots of our vast Motherland,†a claim later taken up by Russian state television and then denied by Berezhov himself.
Then there is the ‘Slavonic Corps,’ a group of Russian mercenaries, recruited in St. Petersburg, who were hired to defend Assad’s oil resources east of Homs. Those men, most of whom were former Russian special forces soldiers, were almost surely fighting in Syria with the full knowledge and consent of the Kremlin.
The key difference, however, is that while the Slavonic Corps was fighting in a limited capacity to secure oil fields, and while Zaslon was allegedly hunting rebel leaders, the GRU units in Al Harra appear to have been working with the Assad regime to intercept communications and better execute Assad’s counterinsurgency strategy.
I just noticed - that is a Spetz in front of a church in Syria.
That guy looks like Chuck Norris.
Intentional.
The Russkies love them some clever propaganda.
I just noticed that too. Actual policy or propaganda?
I don’t know. I am hearing rumors that after the west of Syria is in Assad’s hands and the rear lines secure they will pretty much kill everything that is alive in ISIS held territory. Reports are mass exodus of women and children out of Syria. I don’t see any men in the columns yet or I should say young men.
Aleppo has been encircled. Then reports of Spetz are allowed out in media.
Chuck Norris played Russian Roulette with a fully loaded gun and won.
5.56mm
Russian orthodox where it originated in Syria.
Who thought to follow Spetsnaz on Twitter?
I did.
2nd picture from the top looks like someone might need to get their finger off the bang-switch.
The GRU is much more effective than the NKVD/FSB.
If the muzz were not worried before, they should be now.. Spetsnaz probably do not have any restrictive ROE or worries about PR issues back home if they smack around captives.
They probably hold mock executions in a pigpen.
Cool. I never would have even thought to look for it.
btt
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