Saturday, September 26, 2015

Are Russian Marines Fighting Alongside Hezbollah Forces In Syria?

Syria's President Assad, Russia's President Putin, and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a poster on a Latakia taxi. Reuters

Debka: Russian marines join Hizballah in first Syrian battle – a danger signal for US, Israel

Before dawn on Thursday, Sept. 24, Russian marines went into battle for the first time since their deployment to Syria, DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources reveal. Russian Marine Brigade 810 fought with Syrian army and Hizballah special forces in an attack on ISIS forces at the Kweiris airbase, east of Aleppo.

This operation runs contrary to the assurances of President Vladimir Putin to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sept. 21 – just three days ago - that Russian forces in Syria were only there to defend Russian interests and would not engaged in combat with the Syrian army, Hizballah or Iranian troops.

Update: Russian marines fight Isis along with Hezbollah in Syria, says report (IBTimes).

WNU Editor: I am always sceptical when I post a report from the website Debka. I find that they tend to get much of their information and news from what I feel are questionable "Israeli sources". But I will also concede that they have a history of either being 100% right .... or 100% wrong. This is one of those stories where I have my doubts .... and while it would not surprise me if Russian forces were coordinating and working with Hezbollah .... Russian social media (which is a source of a lot of information for me because of its unfiltered content) .... is silent on this report (for now).

3 comments:

Utho said...

I really like the idea of the IS terror-tourists meeting russian marines or VDV.

It is one thing to blow up, overrun and execute underarmed Kurds, tribal warriors or demoralized syrian army troops, and a completly differend kind of bloodbath when the opponents are some hard-assed, well-trained and appropriately equipped and supported professionals.

And the syrian civil-war is neither Afghanistan nor Vietnam, is has good, old-fashioned fronts, territories the IS will be forced to defend - and plentiful strategic targets in the scattered pieces of land held by the caliphate.

Layguy said...

Russia is testing it's transformational warfare techniques. Hybrid warfare er whatever.

Layguy said...

Russia is testing it's transformational warfare techniques. Hybrid warfare er whatever.