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How a 4-Hour Battle Between Russian Mercenaries and U.S. Commandos Unfolded in Syria

crimsonaudio

crimsonaudio

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US Special Forces are unparalleled, especially when they have air support...

The artillery barrage was so intense that the American commandos dived into foxholes for protection, emerging covered in flying dirt and debris to fire back at a column of tanks advancing under the heavy shelling. It was the opening salvo in a nearly four-hour assault in February by around 500 pro-Syrian government forces — including Russian mercenaries — that threatened to inflame already-simmering tensions between Washington and Moscow.

In the end, 200 to 300 of the attacking fighters were killed. The others retreated under merciless airstrikes from the United States, returning later to retrieve their battlefield dead. None of the Americans at the small outpost in eastern Syria — about 40 by the end of the firefight — were harmed.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/24/...ican-commandos-russian-mercenaries-syria.html
 
92tide

92tide

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this is a great paragraph

American warplanes arrived in waves, including Reaper drones, F-22 stealth fighter jets, F-15E Strike Fighters, B-52 bombers, AC-130 gunships and AH-64 Apache helicopters. For the next three hours, American officials said, scores of strikes pummeled enemy troops, tanks and other vehicles. Marine rocket artillery was fired from the ground.
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crimsonaudio

crimsonaudio

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92tide said:
this is a great paragraph
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Especially after this one:

For the first 15 minutes, American military officials called their Russian counterparts and urged them to stop the attack. When that failed, American troops fired warning shots at a group of vehicles and a howitzer.

Still the troops advanced.
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"PLEASE don't make us do what we're about to do to you..."
 
U

uafanataum

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crimsonaudio said:
Also a good way to dissuade the enemy from ever considering this sort of thing again...
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I'm not sure why they did it in the first place. The formula for causing the U.S. military problems has already been found, and it is not lining up and coming straight at them. Almost every attempt to try conventional attacks against the U.S. military for the past 60 years has ended up like this one.
 
AlexanderFan

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Twenty years ago it could put a bullet in every square inch of a football field, I'm sure it's gotten more efficient at doing what it does.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Tidewater

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Displaced Bama Fan said:
Explain to me why we're in Syria again? Oh, yeah, I see...
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Well, why the U.S. is in Syria is different from the reasons why Russia is in Syria (and why Vagner is in Syria).
The U.S. is in Syria because John McCain thought it would be a good idea and because there was going to be an outbreak of Jeffersonian democracy if we helped a bit.
Russia is in Syria because Assad is Putin's only friend and he wants to show the world that Putin helps his friends.
Vagner is in Syria for profits. Period.(And it get's Vagner's owner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, some cred with Putin, which ain't bad for any Russian businessman).
 
crimsonaudio

crimsonaudio

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Tidewater said:
The (unofficial) motto of the AC-130 crews: "Don't run. You'll only die tired."
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My uncle (who worked for many years in some capacity for the DoD but cannot tell us precisely what his job entailed) once showed me a video he took from within a C130 during an attack somewhere over there. Even from inside the plane hearing that giant gatling gun moan was terrifying. And they just kept circling, eliminating the enemy below with FLIR...

As uafanataum said above - there's literally no force on earth that can go toe to toe with the US military, and any attempt to do so will result in quit and absolute destruction. It's seriously baffling that they would try.
 
Tidewater

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crimsonaudio said:
My uncle (who worked for many years in some capacity for the DoD but cannot tell us precisely what his job entailed) once showed me a video he took from within a C130 during an attack somewhere over there. Even from inside the plane hearing that giant gatling gun moan was terrifying. And they just kept circling, eliminating the enemy below with FLIR...

As uafanataum said above - there's literally no force on earth that can go toe to toe with the US military, and any attempt to do so will result in quit and absolute destruction. It's seriously baffling that they would try.
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I honestly believe that the Vagner guys thought that this oil facility was defended by Syrian democratic forces only. If they knew the U.S. SF guys were there, they'd've given them a wider berth. The Russian language reports have been, shall we say, "colorful."

I also do not think that Putin gives a rip that Russian mercs were killed. His reaction was probably, "They made a business decision that did not work out. These things happen."
 
crimsonaudio

crimsonaudio

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Tidewater said:
I honestly believe that the Vagner guys thought that this oil facility was defended by Syrian democratic forces only. If they knew the U.S. SF guys were there, they'd've given them a wider berth. The Russian language reports have been, shall we say, "colorful."
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Yah, I've seen their calls on it. They took an incredible beating, had no idea they were going up against USSF.

A friend of mine was recently posted in Djibouti at the Africom base - when I first heard he was deploying there I mentioned my concern as that part of the world isn't exactly stable. He laughed and said "I'll be on a base with over 4,000 USSF soldiers - I'll be safer there than you will be in your den watching TV..."
 
Bazza

Bazza

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Another aspect of this battle is that Russians use a more centralized command center while US forces allow decisions (in most cases) to come from the field. The Russians (and associated mercenary force) may have underestimated that the US was going to do what they did - thinking we'd probably retreat to a safe space, given the disconnect between our field operations and central command.

Obviously their assumption was wrong!
 
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