This
seems to be from an opposition publication but confirms something I
have suspected – that is it is not in the interests for the Russian
foreign ministry to give the exact details of these events – it
would, after all be an act of war.
My
conclusions are of course very, very different from that of the
article while the evidence seems to be genuine.
Zakharova
Downplays Armed Clash with Americans in Syria, Kremlin-linked Audio
Recordings Contradict Her Story
16
February, 2018
Russian
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova is the only Russian
government official who has publicly confirmed that five people,
“presumably” Russian citizens, were killed in an armed clash with
U.S. forces near Deir el-Zour in Syria.
Polygraph.info
has obtained audio recordings from a source close to the Kremlin who
said the Russian casualties were personnel from a private Russian
military company who attempted to capture an oil refinery in Syria.
“So,
one squadron f**** lost 200 people…right away,” said one of three
mercenary soldiers. “Another one lost 10 people… and I don’t
know about the third squadron but it got torn up pretty badly, too.”
Most
news reports cite similar casualty figures.
The
incident took place on the night of February 7-8, a week before
Zakharova’s briefing in Moscow.
The
U.S. said its forces acted in self-defense – in response to an
offensive by what were assumed to be pro-Assad forces.
“We
will use force if our troops are threatened, and that was the case,”
said State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert.
Commenting
on the incident, U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said: “It was
self-defense. Obviously, we are not getting engaged in the Syrian
civil war.”
U.S.
military officials said the coalition was in contact with Russia
before, during and after the February 7-8 attack and had alerted
Russia to the presence of SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) personnel in
that area.
Mattis
said the Russians had told the American military that they did not
have any forces there.
“Via
the administration of the president of Russia and the Defense
Ministry, explanations were quickly given concerning the absence of
Russian troops near the American air strike,” Zakharova told
reporters.
Zakharova’s
claims about the number of people killed in the incident and their
citizenship contradict Western and the Russian media reports.
Russian
opposition leader Alexey Navalny called Zakharova’s statement a
“lie.”
“It
is hard to imagine that it would take such a long time” for the
Russian Foreign Ministry to establish the citizenship of those
wounded, Navalny said, especially given that “the injured had been
transported back to Russia.”
Russia
has its own military bases in various locations in Syria, and the
Russian military and government are closely cooperating with Bashar
Assad and his armed forces.
Various
media have identified at least eight Russian citizens whose relatives
and friends confirmed that they were killed in Syria's Deir el-Zour
on the night of February 7- 8.
Here
is the list, compiled from several outlets, including
Novayagazeta.ru, Fontanka.ru, Rferl.org and others:
Alexey
Shikhov, from the city of Nizhny Novgorod
Ruslan
Gavrilov, from the village of Kedrovka, Sverdlov region
Stanislav
Matveyev, from the town of Asbest, Sverdlov region
Igor
Kosoturov, from the town of Asbest, Sverdlov region
Alexey
Ladygin, from the city of Ryazan
Kirill
Ananiyev, from Moscow
Vladimir
Logonov, from Kaliningrad
Vladimir
aka “Apostol,” last name unknown
Another
prominent Russian opposition figure, Grigory Yavlinsky, who is
running against Vladimir Putin in the March 2018 presidential
elections, sent an open letter to the Kremlin and the military
demanding the truth about what happened in Syria on the night of
February 7-8.
“I
demand an explanation of why Russian citizens are taking part in
ground military operations in Syria, despite the statements made by
the president and the defense minister about the withdrawal of
Russian military forces from that country, and that the civil war in
Syria was over,” Yavlinsky wrote.
The
Russian independent news outlet Znak.com reported that “217 Russian
mercenaries” were killed in the incident, while Bloomberg.com,
citing Russian military sources, said about 300 Russians were killed.
On
February 11, Polygraph.info acquired three separate audio recordings
from a source close to Kremlin, who claimed the people speaking on
the recordings are personnel from “CHVK Wagner,” and the
audio-clips are recorded phone conversations. CHVK is the Russian
abbreviation for “Private Military Company.”
The
man on the longest audio clip, speaking Russian with a Moscow accent,
detailed what he said was “our failed attack” against a U.S.-held
oil refinery in Deir el-Zour on the night of February 7-8.
Although,
private military groups are illegal
in Russia,
multiple intelligence reports and experts say CHVK Wagner is a
Russian government shadow paramilitary group that is used in
conflicts around the world, including Ukraine, Georgia and Syria.
CHVK
Wagner is
known to hire paramilitary personnel from Russia and, more recently,
from other places, such as eastern Ukraine. It is unclear how many of
the scores said to have been killed in the incident were citizens of
countries other than Russia.
Evelyn
Farkas,
a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine
and Eurasia during the Obama administration, told Bloomberg.com: "Any
Russian mercenaries, whether they are in Ukraine or Syria, work for
the Russian government."
Below
is an English transcript of the audio recordings and the actual audio
clips in Russian with English captions:
The
first audio clip:
“The
reports that are on TV about … well, you know, about Syria and the
25 people that are wounded there from the Syrian f*** Army and --
well ... to make it short, we’ve had our asses f*** kicked. So, one
squadron f**** lost 200 people …right away, another one lost 10
people… and I don’t know about the third squadron but it got torn
up pretty badly, too... So three squadrons took a beating… The
Yankees attacked… first they blasted the f*** out of us by
artillery and then they took four helicopters up and pushed us in a
f*** merry-go-round with heavy caliber machine guns….They were all
shelling the holy f*** out of it and our guys didn’t have anything
besides the assault rifles… nothing at all, not even mentioning
shoulder-fired SAMs or anything like that…So they tore us to pieces
for sure, put us through hell, and the Yankees knew for sure that the
Russians were coming, that it was us, f*** Russians… Our guys were
going to commandeer an oil refinery and the Yankees were holding it…
We got our f**** asses beat rough, my men called me... They’re
there drinking now… many have gone missing… it’s a total
f***-up, it sucks, another takedown….Everybody, you know, treats us
like pieces of sh*** ... They beat our asses like we were little
pieces of sh***... but our f*** government will go in reverse now and
nobody will respond or anything and nobody will punish anyone for
this... So these are our casualties…
The
second audio clip:
“Out
of all vehicles only one tank survived and one BRDM (Armored
Reconnaissance Vehicle) after the attack, all other BRDMs and tanks
were destroyed in the first minutes of the fight, right away.”
The
third audio clip:
“Just
had a call with a guy; so they basically formed a convoy, but did not
get to their f*** positions by some three hundred meters. One unit
moved forward, the convoy remained in place, about 300 meters from
the others. The others raised the American f*** flag and their
artillery started f*** ours really hard. Then their f*** choppers
flew in and starter f*** everybody. Ours just running around. Just
got a call from a pal, so there are about 215 f*** killed. They
simply rolled ours out f*** hard. Made their point. What the f***
ours were hoping for in there?! That they will f*** run away
themselves? Hoped to f*** scare them away? Lots of people f*** so bad
[they] can’t be f*** ID-d. There was no foot soldiers [on the
American side]; they simply f*** our convoy with artillery.”
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