At least 100 Russians were killed last week when U.S.-led coalition forces clashed with pro-Assad fighters in eastern Syria, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing a U.S. official and three Russian sources.
From the article:
“More than 200 mercenaries, mostly Russians fighting on behalf of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, died in a failed attack on a base and refinery held by U.S. and U.S.-backed forces in the oil-rich Deir Ezzor region, two of the Russians said. The U.S. official put the death toll at about 100, with 200 to 300 injured.”
The third Russian source, an unnamed mercenary commander, told Bloomberg the still-rising death toll from the incident is already about five times higher than Russia’s official losses since entering the conflict in 2015. He said dozens of his wounded men are still being treated in military hospitals in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
On Monday night, hours before the Bloomberg article was published, Reuters ran a similar report with sources revealing the identities of two of the Russian mercenaries killed in the February 7 clash. Reuters was unable to independently confirm those deaths.
The U.S.-led coalition claims the deaths resulted from an “unprovoked attack” by pro-Assad forces who were trying to seize lucrative oil fields controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which the U.S. supports.
Russia declared the coalition attack an “act of aggression” that showed the real purpose of U.S. presence in Syria is not to combat terrorism but to take over and control economic assets that belong to the Syrian Arab Republic.
Russia’s Defense Ministry initially stated that Moscow had no knowledge of Russian mercenaries operating in the region and that it only tracks data on the country’s armed forces. It doubled down on that claim following the reports of dead Russians.
“We don’t have information about other Russians who might be in Syria,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call Tuesday.
Vladimir Frolov, a former Russian diplomat who is now an independent political analyst, told Bloomberg that given the potential of the incident for deepening military engagement between the U.S. and Russia, this is exactly what the Defense Ministry would say.
“This is a big scandal and a reason for an acute international crisis,” Frolov said. “But Russia will pretend nothing happened.”
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They weren't russians. They were syrian (well maybe just arabic or afghan) mercs. Actually they were terrorists got paid by russia just like there are terrorists paid by us and turks in that region.
one side says mercs, other rebels, other terrorists.
Total charlie foxtrott. You'd expect it should've been resolved by now but it seems this is still the beginning. trump-putin-erdogan trying to play a game there and we are gonna suffer.
Thanks for reporting. Russia will probably not escalate the situation for the same reason: they are mercenaries. I would say anyone involved in Syria right now is probably watching their energy resources. That includes: US, Russia, Iran, Turkey and even Israel.
They were not Russians,or at least they did not belong to the Russian army.The US has mercenaries too,recruited from every corner of the planet,but you wouldn't consider them being Americans only because the US pay them to fight.
Yes , i think that might be the concept.
If they were Russians then the USA would be very ready for an unscoolous war
Lol.
This story from Bloomberg isn't matching a lot of the first person accounts that I have been following from Syrian military posters on Facebook. Moon of Alabama has the low down on what most likely took place.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/02/syria-us-may-have-arranged-self-defense-attack-on-syrian-government-forces.html
Capitalism 10 - Comunism 0. Mr. Trump is a winner for a reason!
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Other than Syrians, it seems most of the conflict in Syria is mercenaries killing each other while wreaking havoc on civilians.
Putin has demonstrated throughout his career the ability to measure response to provocation, and I am certain this will not change now. The Georgian attack on it's own province of S. Ossetia in 2008 well exemplified this. S. Ossetia is largely ethnically Russian, so when Georgia began firing American missiles into schools, hospitals, and residential areas, it was certain Russia would respond.
Only 3 klicks south of the border of S. Ossetia, a critical junction of the pipeline that brings crude from Baku to points west was widely expected to be seized by Russia, as the juicy bait was utterly vulnerable to the massive ground forces that Russia deployed in S. Ossetia to end the targeting of Russians by the US-led forces of the Georgian military.
Huge bets were made before the conflict began that oil prices would skyrocket. Gas prices in the US were already mooning, and BP, who operates the pipeline, must have been chortling with glee and rubbing it's blood covered hands together.
Yet Russian forces never touched the pipeline, the derivatives were worthless, and oil prices plummeted, and have never approached the prices then extant. It is difficult to estimate the total monetary amount of the gift Putin gave the world, by seeing through the scam that depended on his personal greed. It is certainly over a $Trillion, however.
Syria is a war being fought, again, for an oil pipeline. I have no doubt that Putin is fully cognizant of who is who on the ground there, although it's impenetrable for most of us, as the obfuscatory propaganda the enemedia blares is hard to find alternatives to.
Nothing would profit the deep state more than full blown war between US and Russian forces in Syria, and constant provocation is undertaken to cause that corpse flower to profitably bloom.
Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Korea all border Russia, and Putin is not going to fail to understand the threat to Russia isn't soluble by committing ground troops in Syria. He has actual information, rather than the propaganda we are inundated with, and this is his sandbox.
I dunno how, but I am pretty sure Putin will figger out a way to keep Russia from being sucked into war in Syria against the US. Keeping Iran out of a war with Israel may be impossible. If anyone can do it, it's Putin.