Christoph Reuter, Spiegel Online: The Truth About the Russian Deaths in Syria
Hundreds of Russian soldiers are alleged to have died in U.S. airstrikes at the beginning of February. Reporting by DER SPIEGEL shows that events were likely very different.
When it comes to cursing, the man doesn't hold back. "Son of a bitch" is the mildest cuss word that comes out of the militia member's mouth as he rants furiously about the inferno created by the hours-long American airstrike southeast of the city of Deir ez-Zor. Even as smoke continues to billow from burned out SUVs around them, he and five other men have come to remove the shattered body of one of their fellow fighters from the glowing embers of a bombed-out building.
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WNU Editor: Russian social media gets flooded by notices of burials/funerals when an incident like this happen. But aside from the flurry of earlier reports of families being notified that their loved ones were killed in Syria .... the numbers have not added up to the 100,200, etc. that were initially claimed. What we now have instead are claims that these bodies are in freezers and will only be released after the Russian Presidential election on March 18. Is this true? Sadly .... no one outside the Kremlin really knows.
4 comments:
The puzzle about this incident is how could the Russians conduct such a poorly executed attack against a strongly defended position?
Answer it wasn’t the Russians.
The people who know aren’t talking yet but maybe they will someday.
This is puzzling. The Russians are among the best led, best trained, and most motivated forces on the planet. I pretty much suspected right away this was not them. Why say that it was?
While official sources on both the Russian and American side have, wisely especially for the Americans, have sought to play this down, Russian media sources seem to be covering this story very closely. If the Russians wanted to expand their operations to begin actively targeting us, this "incident" has yielded a huge messaging victory for them as there are now calls for revenge against the Americans. They can have the means to justify this expansion should they chose to do so.
I am glad that our people were successful, this time, against whoever it was that attacked them. There never seems to have been any good reason for American forces to be in Syria in the first place. Had they not been there this would not have happened.
From what i have gathered, a column of troops was reported to be heading towards an oil refinary. The US called Russia and asked them if it was their people inwhich they replied they have no one in that area. As the column got within 300m or so the leading vehicle hit an IED causing the column to stall. At this stage the American forces opened up with artillery and sent helicopters into the air to mop up survivors. I would argue this was a rogue unit attempting to capture resources to fund themselves, that been said the area is under heavy surveillance and American forces in the past have targeted Russian forces with mortars killing Lieutenant-General Valery Asapov, the American forces have deep seated hatred for Russians and been a special forces unit i would argue they have coveritly been killing Syrians and Russians in which a commander finally had enough and attacked them without Russian support.
Anon,
Unfortunately you may be on to something. I am not aware of any special hatred for Russians among the US military, however, the US government, in general, does seem to bear an irrational hatred for Russia.
I think this falls into categories. 1.)To many the wrong side "won" Cold War 1. Russia and Russians have now thoroughly rejected Communism. To many in the US government and the media, this is an unpardonable sin. 2.)There are some old "cold warriors" who simply can't or won't grasp the fact that their old enemy has changed and the old Soviet Union is never coming back. Group 2 has very little real influence. Group 1 is a major concern.
This brings up another issue. Candidate Trump sought to improve relations with Russia. Apparently he correctly recognized the huge upside potential in behaving more sensibly towards Russia along with the combination of no downside risks and, as common sense suggests, thought this might be a good way to go. For such an action, those who harbor deep seated hatreds can never forgive such behavior.
I wonder if the Russians have begun targeting US forces? If not, at what point do they start? Vladimir Putin is right about at least one thing. The "west" will eventually grow tired of the sanctions. At some point the US is going to be expected to pay reparations for this. We've dug ourselves a deep hole on this one. The best thing to do now is to stop digging.
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