…but they had coincidentally collected a large number of dog tags with the first name “Ivan”.
Russian Mercs. “Advisors” to Assad’s forces. Not regular Russian Army. Or so it has been reported.
Looks like “ we” are determined to maintain our occupation of Syria in the post ISIS period
Rooters and Bumburg is still a lot better than the state sponsored RT news from the non-free country of Russia.
The Bloomberg report says 200 Russians KIA, based on leaks from US and Russian sources. Wouldn’t surprise me if Russian mercs were vanguard units. Iranian, Syrian, Lebanese and Afghans fighting in the regime’s behalf seem to be played-out, morale-wise, despite firepower superiority and air dominance. My impression of Muslim units is that they seem more comfortable in hit-and-run guerrilla-type engagements than in knock-down drag-out fights.
The estimated Russian dead would account for a reduction in the volume of bleats from Turkey about US troops getting killed if they fail to evacuate Manbij. If Uncle Sam has no qualms about tangling with the Russians, is the Turkish invasion force really immune from getting zapped in much the same way?
Well, there goes the harmony between the two from their earlier days of collusion. /sarcasm
Personally, I would favor getting out of Syria. There is nothing to accomplish there.
The two body counts are not in contradiction if the figure of 2 is limited to Russian advisers and the figure of 100 includes Syrian/Iranian fighters.