Posted on 02/15/2018 1:11:53 PM PST by BeauBo
About 300 men working for a Kremlin-linked Russian private military firm (Wagner Group) were either killed or injured in Syria last week, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
...A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said last week that a force aligned with Assad, backed with artillery, tanks, rockets and mortars, had on Feb. 7 attacked fighters with the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces near Deir al-Zor. U.S. special forces were accompanying the SDF forces that came under attack, officials in Washington said. The U.S.-led coalition in Syria retaliated, killing about 100 of the pro-Assad forces, according to the official.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Well they just took more casualties than could be easily covered up - and it comes just before the Russian elections next month.
Earlier, the Russian spokesperson said 3 Russians killed or something. Someone is lying and I don’t know whom, I have my suspicions.
It is looking like the force that attacked the SDF in oil field East of Deir ez Zour was primarily Russian. That is a big change from what had been happening, and an indicator that it was viewed as a strategic move by the Russians, worthy of great risk.
It is a public debacle in Russia, and they are lying as hard as they can about it.
Again, I don’t know if it is true or not but the article came out “Using Mercenaries so it looks like they are losing fewer troops”: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/msn/russia-is-using-mercenaries-to-make-it-look-like-its-losing-fewer-troops-in-syria/ar-BBJ69Kv
Suspicions confirmed.
This is nothing new. Same goes for the ongoing conflict in East Ukraine (officially unrecognized) and especially true for war in Chechnya a couple years back. And those weren’t even mercenaries but actual troops whose deaths went under wraps.
They have guards around Putin campaign billboards now, no way is he a popular leader at this time, check the news.
it’s just sort of “accepted” practice and culture in Russia not to expect nor raise a stir for truthful information on the part of the press or government.
Evolving internet and information landscape changes a bit of that mentality though...
Putin is fighting public opinion to send their boys to die in the Ukraine, but even more so in Syria. It is widely unpopular in Russia.
The Iranian regime has a big public relations problem on its hands as well, due to all the Iranians killed in Syria in recent years. It is a big reason for the demonstrations against the regime that have been occurring this year.
Do you think this could effect next month’s electins in Russia? Or are Russian elections fixed beyond the effect of anything?
As far as I can tell the Russians were not regular Russian troops (Putin troops, so to speak), but contract soldiers, aka mercenaries. Some of these soldiers had been in the Ukraine before their commercial contract military company which hey were employed by accepted a Syrian contract. Russia is just beginning to regulate these companies.
I do NOT want to engage Russia over some terrain in Syria.
Period.
From the article:
He said many of the injured had shrapnel in their bodies that was not showing up on X-rays, making treatment difficult. “The prognosis for most of the wounded is dismal,” he said.
“First of all the bombers attacked, and then they cleaned up using Apaches (U.S.-made attack helicopters),” Shabayev said, citing the wounded men he visited in hospital.
The aim was to test if the U.S.-led coalition would react. The force advanced to within less than 5 km (3 miles) of the SDF and American positions, he said.
He said that the U.S.-led forces, in line with procedure agreed with the Russians, warned Russian regular forces that they were preparing to strike. He does not know if the warning was passed on to the contractors.
“The warning was 20 minutes beforehand, in that time it was not feasible to turn the column around,” said the source.
He said once the strikes began, the contractors did not return fire because they believed that would provoke even more strikes from the U.S.-led coalition.
—
All of the hospitals in St. Pets and Moscow are full according to another report.
I wondered why I had not heard anything solid as a complaint about it.
The means they simply lied in the de-conflict Communications.
Initial number I read was about 205 deaths.
“Well they just took more casualties than could be easily covered up”
I guess the mobile crematories haven’t been deployed to Syria?
The Russians may want to think twice about committing to another war in the Middle East. They need to refer to their debacle in Afghanistan!
No way Russian companies were recruiting and training a “private” army in Russia without Putin’s approval.
No way they would attack American allies (and some American Military personnel) in a battalion-sized combined arms assault with tanks, artillery and Engineer bridging operations, without Putin giving the go ahead. They crossed the deconfliction line established between the Russian and American militaries to conduct that attack.
Wagner Group could not exist inside the Syrian Theater of Operations without Russian Military authorization.
Russian jets, under the cover of the Russian flag, were supporting this offensive, until driven off by US jets with warning, close fly bys and flare/chaff discharges.
Your sentiments would be better directed towards Russia and warning them against colliding with our troops.
I think the lesson here is clearly, Trump has given our boys the green light..
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