https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-02-16/russia-attacked-u-s-troops-in-syria
Don't Be Fooled: Russia Attacked U.S. Troops in Syria
Mattis gave Putin "plausible deniability" for a military assault that went badly awry.
by
Eli Lake
779
February 16, 2018, 6:00 PM GMT+8
Assad's saviors.
Photographer: Vasily Maximov/AFP/Getty Images
If you've been listening just to the Kremlin and the Pentagon, you probably didn't know that Russia attacked American forces and their allies in Syria last week, suffering heavy casualties.
Yes, all sides admit that there was an incident at a U.S. base in Deir Ezzor. And that elements of the Syrian regime and Shiite militias participated in the assault. The Pentagon and Kremlin both acknowledge that Russian "mercenaries" participated, too. But the line for now is that those contractors had gone rogue, and Moscow didn't know anything about it.
When reporters asked U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis about the incident, he called the whole thing perplexing. "I have no idea why they would attack there, the forces were known to be there, obviously the Russians knew," he said. "We have always known that there are elements in this very complex battle space that the Russians did not have, I would call it, control of."
Now, it should be said that Mattis, a retired four-star Marine Corps general, is a very smart man. His perplexity in this case is probably what Plato called a "noble lie," a falsehood spoken by a leader to achieve a greater social good. If Mattis acknowledges the obvious -- that the Kremlin authorized a direct assault on a U.S.-sponsored base by non-uniformed personnel -- he risks an escalation spiral in Syria. Better to express bewilderment and give Russian President Vladimir Putin a chance to back down and deny culpability, which he ended up doing despite the heavy casualties suffered by his mercenaries.
But make no mistake: There is overwhelming evidence that those Russian contractors were working at the behest of the Kremlin. What's more, the Russians knew U.S. military personnel were in Deir Ezzor, which has been part of successive agreements to separate, or "deconflict," forces fighting in Syria.
Let's start with the fine reporting of my colleagues at Bloomberg News who discovered that the wounded mercenaries were flown out of Syria and treated at military hospitals in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
U.S. officials who monitor Syria tell me that there is no doubt that the Russian military knew all about the attack in Deir Ezzor. Evelyn Farkas, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia during the Obama administration, told me Thursday: "Any Russian mercenaries, whether they are in Ukraine or Syria, work for the Russian government."
This is not an accident, particularly for the contractor in question, Wagner. One of its leaders, Dmitry Utkin, is a former lieutenant colonel in Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU. He and the firm have been closely tied to the oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, known as "Putin's chef" because he owns the Kremlin's food-service providers.
Contractors like Wagner are a key part of Russia's broader strategy of "hybrid warfare," a mix of kinetic and information aggression to advance Russian interests -- such as the deployment of fighters without uniforms that helped take Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
"They help Russia obfuscate Russia's role in Syria," Matti Suomenaro, a researcher for the Institute for the Study of War told me this week. "In eastern Syria, the Russian Ministry of Defense can say, 'We don't know they were doing this.' But it's very likely this had some kind of direction from higher-ups in the Kremlin."
Finally, there is the strategic argument for why Russia would participate in the attack at Deir Ezzor. U.S. policy at the moment is a bit confusing. When Mattis and other U.S. officials publicly discuss the U.S. mission in Syria, they say only that it is to fight the Islamic State. So far, there is no official policy on whether the U.S. military's role includes countering Russian-Iranian efforts to help the Bashar al-Assad regime retake territory it lost in the civil war.
Add to this the mixed messages sent by the U.S. last month when it failed to stop Turkey from bombing the Kurdish-controlled city of Afrin. While the U.S. has attempted to end the Turkish assault through diplomacy, it has not offered to protect Kurdish fighters aligned with the People's Protection Group, or YPG, who remain in the city. The YPG are key U.S. partners in the campaign against the Islamic State. Indeed, Kurdish fighters stationed in Deir Ezzor in recent weeks have traveled to Afrin for the fighting, making the enclave a more attractive target for the Russo-Iranian alliance in Syria.
For a cynic like Putin, whose air force has bombed other enclaves of U.S.-supported rebels in Syria, the inability of the U.S. to stop a NATO ally, Turkey, from attacking another ally in Afrin is a sign of weakness. The assault last week on Deir Ezzor with mercenaries was a chance to again probe for a U.S. response.
The good news is that the U.S. response was swift and brutal. While there are no hard figures on casualties, some Russian press outlets reported that more than 200 Russian mercenaries were killed.
This brings us back to Mattis, and why he declined to directly blame Russia for the incident. "My guess is he said he was perplexed because he was sending a signal to the Russians: 'I am willing to give you a little time to cut this out, but don't do it again,'" Farkas told me. "And the Russians know they are playing with fire, if you look at how they are responding."
There is a downside, though, to this kind of noble lying. Considering that mercenaries like Wagner are a key part of Russia's broader strategy and tactics, it's also important for the U.S. to deny Moscow its plausible deniability. Russia needs to be told, going forward, that an attack by its mercenaries will be treated as an attack by its armed forces.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
To contact the author of this story:
Eli Lake at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Tobin Harshaw at [email protected]
http://mil.news.sina.com.cn/jssd/2018-04-19/doc-ifzihneq0030279.shtml
新浪军事 > 军事深度>正文
新闻
特朗普曝美俄军队在叙激烈交火 美俄国防部却齐声否认
特朗普曝美俄军队在叙激烈交火 美俄国防部却齐声否认
0
早前美军与俄军在叙利亚幼发拉底河附近激烈交火的消息一直在网络上流传，美国国防部声称“不掌握相关消息”，俄罗斯国防部则指责这是“不实报道”。美俄相继发声之后，美俄军队在叙利亚直接交火一事逐渐被淡化，然而就在日前，美军最高统帅特朗普却在公开场合提起此事，引发公众对此事件真实性的猜想。
▲部署在曼比季地区的美军特种部队
据俄罗斯卫星通讯社消息，美国总统特朗普日前在佛罗里达州的一次记者招待会上表示，一个月前美军与俄罗斯军队在叙利亚发生了激烈交火，冲突“令人悲伤”，许多人在这场战斗中阵亡。
▲美军装甲巡逻车队
今年2月13日，美国《纽约时报》、彭博社等媒体先后发布报道称，美俄军队在石油丰富的代尔伊佐尔地区附近发生激烈交火，交火造成双方共100余人丧生，200多人受伤，死者中包含数十名俄罗斯军人。据悉，当时一伙叙利亚亲政府武装与俄罗斯军人组成的武装部队突袭了美军驻地，尔后美军呼叫空中支援对其进行了空袭，数十名俄罗斯军人在空袭中丧生。
冲突事件发生之后，俄罗斯率先表示否认。克宫发言人表示俄军只统计俄罗斯联邦武装部队士兵的战场数据，不掌握非联邦武装部队士兵（如雇佣兵）的死伤数据。美国国防部则表示“不掌握相关信息”。美媒分析指出，俄罗斯在努力淡化此事的影响，当时俄罗斯已经决定从叙利亚撤出主力武装部队，不打算将事态升级，因此选择息事宁人。而美方也无意将事态扩大化，派出地面武装部队进入叙利亚已经引起极大关注，如果再曝出与俄罗斯军队交火并导致美军伤亡，很可能引爆国内的反战情绪。
▲今年2月13日的叙利亚形势图（图片：Bloomberg）
如今，在经过4·14空袭叙利亚一事之后，美国和俄罗斯已经撕破脸，美国针对俄罗斯的制裁也愈发严重，美国没有太多可以忌惮的。特朗普此时再次将美俄军队的冲突公开化，无疑是想给俄罗斯一记重拳，毕竟在那次冲突中损失更为惨重的是俄罗斯军队。（作者署名：军机图）
《出鞘》每天在新浪军事官方微信完整首发。《出鞘》完整内容可扫描图片二维码关注新浪军事官方微信抢先查看（查看详情请搜索微信公众号：sinamilnews）
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Trump exposed the U.S. and Russian troops in an intense exchange of fire
Trump exposed the U.S. and Russian troops in an intense exchange of fire
0
The news that the US and Russian troops exchanged fire in the vicinity of the Syrian Euphrates River had been circulating on the Internet. The US Defense Department claimed that it did not have any relevant information. The Russian Ministry of Defense accused it of being "false reports." After the United States and Russia spoke in succession, the US-Russian military’s direct exchange of fire in Syria gradually faded. However, just recently, the US military’s supreme commander Trump raised the matter in public, triggering public conjecture on the authenticity of the incident.
▲ U.S. Special Forces deployed in Manby district ▲ U.S. Special Forces deployed in Manby district
According to news from the Russian Satellite News Agency, US President Trump said at a press conference in Florida recently that there was a fierce exchange of fire between the U.S. and Russian troops in Syria a month ago. The conflict was "sadly" and many people were in this fight. The war dead.
▲ U.S. Armored Patrol Team ▲ U.S. Armor Patrol Team
On February 13 this year, media outlets such as the “New York Times” and Bloomberg News successively issued reports that there were fierce exchanges of fire between the U.S. and Russian troops near the oil-rich Del Izor region. The exchange of fire caused a total of more than 100 deaths and more than 200 injuries. The deceased included dozens of Russian soldiers. According to reports, a group of Syrian pro-government armed forces and Russian military personnel raided the US military garrison. At that time, the U.S. military called for air support and carried out an air strike. Dozens of Russian military personnel were killed in the air raid.
After the conflict occurred, Russia took the lead in denying it. The Spock spokesman said that the Russian military only counts the battlefield data of soldiers of the Russian Federation Armed Forces and does not have data on the casualties of non-Federal Armed Forces soldiers (such as mercenaries). The U.S. Department of Defense stated that it does not possess relevant information. U.S. media analysis pointed out that Russia is trying to downplay the impact of this matter. At that time, Russia had decided to withdraw its main armed forces from Syria and did not plan to upgrade the situation. Therefore, it chose to take the initiative. The United States has no intention of expanding the situation. Sending armed forces on the ground into Syria has caused great concern. If it is exposed to crossfire with the Russian army and causes US casualties, it may detonate domestic anti-war sentiment.
▲ Situation of Syria on February 13 (Photo: Bloomberg) ▲ Situation of Syria on February 13 of this year (Photo: Bloomberg)
Today, after the April 14th air strike against Syria, the United States and Russia have already tore their faces. The US sanctions against Russia have also become more serious. The United States does not have much to be taboo. Trump once again publicized the conflict between the US and Russian troops. It is no doubt that he wants to give Russia a heavy punch. After all, the Russian military was even more devastated in that conflict. (Author's signature: Military aircraft map)
"Sheathing" is fully launched on the Sina Military official WeChat every day. "Sheath" full content can be scanned image QR code concerned Sina military official WeChat first check (see details, please search WeChat public number: sinamilnews)
Don't Be Fooled: Russia Attacked U.S. Troops in Syria
Mattis gave Putin "plausible deniability" for a military assault that went badly awry.
by
Eli Lake
779
February 16, 2018, 6:00 PM GMT+8
Assad's saviors.
Photographer: Vasily Maximov/AFP/Getty Images
If you've been listening just to the Kremlin and the Pentagon, you probably didn't know that Russia attacked American forces and their allies in Syria last week, suffering heavy casualties.
Yes, all sides admit that there was an incident at a U.S. base in Deir Ezzor. And that elements of the Syrian regime and Shiite militias participated in the assault. The Pentagon and Kremlin both acknowledge that Russian "mercenaries" participated, too. But the line for now is that those contractors had gone rogue, and Moscow didn't know anything about it.
When reporters asked U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis about the incident, he called the whole thing perplexing. "I have no idea why they would attack there, the forces were known to be there, obviously the Russians knew," he said. "We have always known that there are elements in this very complex battle space that the Russians did not have, I would call it, control of."
Now, it should be said that Mattis, a retired four-star Marine Corps general, is a very smart man. His perplexity in this case is probably what Plato called a "noble lie," a falsehood spoken by a leader to achieve a greater social good. If Mattis acknowledges the obvious -- that the Kremlin authorized a direct assault on a U.S.-sponsored base by non-uniformed personnel -- he risks an escalation spiral in Syria. Better to express bewilderment and give Russian President Vladimir Putin a chance to back down and deny culpability, which he ended up doing despite the heavy casualties suffered by his mercenaries.
But make no mistake: There is overwhelming evidence that those Russian contractors were working at the behest of the Kremlin. What's more, the Russians knew U.S. military personnel were in Deir Ezzor, which has been part of successive agreements to separate, or "deconflict," forces fighting in Syria.
Let's start with the fine reporting of my colleagues at Bloomberg News who discovered that the wounded mercenaries were flown out of Syria and treated at military hospitals in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
U.S. officials who monitor Syria tell me that there is no doubt that the Russian military knew all about the attack in Deir Ezzor. Evelyn Farkas, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia during the Obama administration, told me Thursday: "Any Russian mercenaries, whether they are in Ukraine or Syria, work for the Russian government."
This is not an accident, particularly for the contractor in question, Wagner. One of its leaders, Dmitry Utkin, is a former lieutenant colonel in Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU. He and the firm have been closely tied to the oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, known as "Putin's chef" because he owns the Kremlin's food-service providers.
Contractors like Wagner are a key part of Russia's broader strategy of "hybrid warfare," a mix of kinetic and information aggression to advance Russian interests -- such as the deployment of fighters without uniforms that helped take Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
"They help Russia obfuscate Russia's role in Syria," Matti Suomenaro, a researcher for the Institute for the Study of War told me this week. "In eastern Syria, the Russian Ministry of Defense can say, 'We don't know they were doing this.' But it's very likely this had some kind of direction from higher-ups in the Kremlin."
Finally, there is the strategic argument for why Russia would participate in the attack at Deir Ezzor. U.S. policy at the moment is a bit confusing. When Mattis and other U.S. officials publicly discuss the U.S. mission in Syria, they say only that it is to fight the Islamic State. So far, there is no official policy on whether the U.S. military's role includes countering Russian-Iranian efforts to help the Bashar al-Assad regime retake territory it lost in the civil war.
Add to this the mixed messages sent by the U.S. last month when it failed to stop Turkey from bombing the Kurdish-controlled city of Afrin. While the U.S. has attempted to end the Turkish assault through diplomacy, it has not offered to protect Kurdish fighters aligned with the People's Protection Group, or YPG, who remain in the city. The YPG are key U.S. partners in the campaign against the Islamic State. Indeed, Kurdish fighters stationed in Deir Ezzor in recent weeks have traveled to Afrin for the fighting, making the enclave a more attractive target for the Russo-Iranian alliance in Syria.
For a cynic like Putin, whose air force has bombed other enclaves of U.S.-supported rebels in Syria, the inability of the U.S. to stop a NATO ally, Turkey, from attacking another ally in Afrin is a sign of weakness. The assault last week on Deir Ezzor with mercenaries was a chance to again probe for a U.S. response.
The good news is that the U.S. response was swift and brutal. While there are no hard figures on casualties, some Russian press outlets reported that more than 200 Russian mercenaries were killed.
This brings us back to Mattis, and why he declined to directly blame Russia for the incident. "My guess is he said he was perplexed because he was sending a signal to the Russians: 'I am willing to give you a little time to cut this out, but don't do it again,'" Farkas told me. "And the Russians know they are playing with fire, if you look at how they are responding."
There is a downside, though, to this kind of noble lying. Considering that mercenaries like Wagner are a key part of Russia's broader strategy and tactics, it's also important for the U.S. to deny Moscow its plausible deniability. Russia needs to be told, going forward, that an attack by its mercenaries will be treated as an attack by its armed forces.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
To contact the author of this story:
Eli Lake at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Tobin Harshaw at [email protected]
http://mil.news.sina.com.cn/jssd/2018-04-19/doc-ifzihneq0030279.shtml
新浪军事 > 军事深度>正文
新闻
特朗普曝美俄军队在叙激烈交火 美俄国防部却齐声否认
特朗普曝美俄军队在叙激烈交火 美俄国防部却齐声否认
0
早前美军与俄军在叙利亚幼发拉底河附近激烈交火的消息一直在网络上流传，美国国防部声称“不掌握相关消息”，俄罗斯国防部则指责这是“不实报道”。美俄相继发声之后，美俄军队在叙利亚直接交火一事逐渐被淡化，然而就在日前，美军最高统帅特朗普却在公开场合提起此事，引发公众对此事件真实性的猜想。
据俄罗斯卫星通讯社消息，美国总统特朗普日前在佛罗里达州的一次记者招待会上表示，一个月前美军与俄罗斯军队在叙利亚发生了激烈交火，冲突“令人悲伤”，许多人在这场战斗中阵亡。
今年2月13日，美国《纽约时报》、彭博社等媒体先后发布报道称，美俄军队在石油丰富的代尔伊佐尔地区附近发生激烈交火，交火造成双方共100余人丧生，200多人受伤，死者中包含数十名俄罗斯军人。据悉，当时一伙叙利亚亲政府武装与俄罗斯军人组成的武装部队突袭了美军驻地，尔后美军呼叫空中支援对其进行了空袭，数十名俄罗斯军人在空袭中丧生。
冲突事件发生之后，俄罗斯率先表示否认。克宫发言人表示俄军只统计俄罗斯联邦武装部队士兵的战场数据，不掌握非联邦武装部队士兵（如雇佣兵）的死伤数据。美国国防部则表示“不掌握相关信息”。美媒分析指出，俄罗斯在努力淡化此事的影响，当时俄罗斯已经决定从叙利亚撤出主力武装部队，不打算将事态升级，因此选择息事宁人。而美方也无意将事态扩大化，派出地面武装部队进入叙利亚已经引起极大关注，如果再曝出与俄罗斯军队交火并导致美军伤亡，很可能引爆国内的反战情绪。
如今，在经过4·14空袭叙利亚一事之后，美国和俄罗斯已经撕破脸，美国针对俄罗斯的制裁也愈发严重，美国没有太多可以忌惮的。特朗普此时再次将美俄军队的冲突公开化，无疑是想给俄罗斯一记重拳，毕竟在那次冲突中损失更为惨重的是俄罗斯军队。（作者署名：军机图）
《出鞘》每天在新浪军事官方微信完整首发。《出鞘》完整内容可扫描图片二维码关注新浪军事官方微信抢先查看（查看详情请搜索微信公众号：sinamilnews）
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军事深度>正文 ">Sina Military> Military Depth> Text
news
Trump exposed the U.S. and Russian troops in an intense exchange of fire
Trump exposed the U.S. and Russian troops in an intense exchange of fire
0
The news that the US and Russian troops exchanged fire in the vicinity of the Syrian Euphrates River had been circulating on the Internet. The US Defense Department claimed that it did not have any relevant information. The Russian Ministry of Defense accused it of being "false reports." After the United States and Russia spoke in succession, the US-Russian military’s direct exchange of fire in Syria gradually faded. However, just recently, the US military’s supreme commander Trump raised the matter in public, triggering public conjecture on the authenticity of the incident.
▲ U.S. Special Forces deployed in Manby district ▲ U.S. Special Forces deployed in Manby district
According to news from the Russian Satellite News Agency, US President Trump said at a press conference in Florida recently that there was a fierce exchange of fire between the U.S. and Russian troops in Syria a month ago. The conflict was "sadly" and many people were in this fight. The war dead.
▲ U.S. Armored Patrol Team ▲ U.S. Armor Patrol Team
On February 13 this year, media outlets such as the “New York Times” and Bloomberg News successively issued reports that there were fierce exchanges of fire between the U.S. and Russian troops near the oil-rich Del Izor region. The exchange of fire caused a total of more than 100 deaths and more than 200 injuries. The deceased included dozens of Russian soldiers. According to reports, a group of Syrian pro-government armed forces and Russian military personnel raided the US military garrison. At that time, the U.S. military called for air support and carried out an air strike. Dozens of Russian military personnel were killed in the air raid.
After the conflict occurred, Russia took the lead in denying it. The Spock spokesman said that the Russian military only counts the battlefield data of soldiers of the Russian Federation Armed Forces and does not have data on the casualties of non-Federal Armed Forces soldiers (such as mercenaries). The U.S. Department of Defense stated that it does not possess relevant information. U.S. media analysis pointed out that Russia is trying to downplay the impact of this matter. At that time, Russia had decided to withdraw its main armed forces from Syria and did not plan to upgrade the situation. Therefore, it chose to take the initiative. The United States has no intention of expanding the situation. Sending armed forces on the ground into Syria has caused great concern. If it is exposed to crossfire with the Russian army and causes US casualties, it may detonate domestic anti-war sentiment.
▲ Situation of Syria on February 13 (Photo: Bloomberg) ▲ Situation of Syria on February 13 of this year (Photo: Bloomberg)
Today, after the April 14th air strike against Syria, the United States and Russia have already tore their faces. The US sanctions against Russia have also become more serious. The United States does not have much to be taboo. Trump once again publicized the conflict between the US and Russian troops. It is no doubt that he wants to give Russia a heavy punch. After all, the Russian military was even more devastated in that conflict. (Author's signature: Military aircraft map)
"Sheathing" is fully launched on the Sina Military official WeChat every day. "Sheath" full content can be scanned image QR code concerned Sina military official WeChat first check (see details, please search WeChat public number: sinamilnews)
