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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Shoigu answered calmly and arrogantly |
| 2023-06-13 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. Commentary by Russian military blogger Andrey Chervonets. The head of the Wagner PMC shared the details of the tragedy on February 8, 2018 in the Khsham area near Deir ez-Zor in Syria. Even then, at that time, there was information that the Russian Defense Ministry "disowned" the PMC, allowing the Americans to attack it. “After crossing the left bank of the Euphrates in September 2017, the Wagner PMC managed to create a foothold for further advancement into the eastern part of Syria. The oil fields of Syria’s main Al-Omar field were the main source of income for the Syrian people, and the Shair and Khayan fields are the main source But at the same time, Syrian oil served as the main financial support for the entire world Islamic State (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation) . in Syria. Therefore, in this case, the main task of the Wagner PMC units was to cut off the road from Conoco to Iraq, clear the southeast of Syria from ISIS and prevent the advance of the Kurdish formations under the control of the Americans to the south of Syria. On February 2, 2018, I discussed this plan with the Chief of the General Staff , and then with the officers on the ground who were involved in the operation. The Conoco plant served as a stronghold for ISIS - they periodically engaged in skirmishes, biting and trying to launch a counteroffensive, but to no avail. We responded, and rifle battles between the sides went on daily, periodically, and shelled each other with artillery. The distance between positions in some places was 150-500 meters. The operation to take control of the southeast of Syria was planned for the night of February 7-8 with access to the Conoco plant and further along the highway up to the border with Iraq. And after organizing a security zone from the south, it was possible to launch units of the Syrian army. I arrived at Khmeimim base on the 7th at 16.00. I spoke in detail with the command of the facility, and we discussed the details of the interaction. From the military, we needed aviation support and flawlessly working air defense systems. We knew that the terrorists were covered by the Americans who were in their ranks. But on the ground, we had the upper hand over the ISIS and American advisers and had no doubt that we could fight back. The main task of the military was to prevent the Americans from attacking us from the air. We were promised that two pairs of SU-35 fighters would be constantly on duty, "eights", located over the Euphrates. So that in the event of an exit of enemy aircraft, it would be possible to attack them and prevent a strike on the moving infantry. It was also promised that all air defense systems would work: S-300, Pantsiri and other available air defense and aviation equipment, which Wagner PMC did not have at that time. Well, earlier, when I arrived, it was agreed that we would be warned in case of any force majeure. At 18.00, the assault detachments of PMC "Wagner" began to reach the designated lines. The dispatcher of PMC "Wagner", who is at the headquarters, clarified with the command:“Is everything all right, is everything according to plan?” They told him, "Yes, don't worry." The schedule was docked, checked and combat work began. The units reached their starting lines, put up a second echelon to pull up reserves after the start of the assault, the artillery was put in position, after which a shooting battle ensued. IS began to actively respond. In order to suppress the militants, they began to impose artillery, the IS responded with their guns and a normal battle ensued, in which it is advisable to go on the attack. At 23:45, the command was given to storm the positions of the IS, and suddenly the Americans began to attack from the sky. They unleashed the entire power of their aviation on the Wagner attack aircraft: F-15E bombers, MQ-9 Reaper strike UAVs, and an AC-130 flying artillery battery were involved. Several AH-64 Apache helicopters spun the fire carousels non-stop. Even B-52 strategic bombers were raised. Enemy aviation worked very closely, worked for complete destruction, resulting in a large number of dead and wounded. At the same time, they were constantly beaten along the escape routes. It was decided to stop at the achieved milestones. Which is what was done. The subsequent analysis turned out to be as follows: at 18.00, the command “to leave everyone” was received from the Chief of the General Staff, do not raise the planes, turn off all air defense systems. According to the information that I received from the dispatchers, it was ordered not to inform the Wagner PMC about these measures in any way and subsequently not to get in touch. As it turned out, on that day from 18 to 23:45 the Americans repeatedly asked questions, whether Russian units are heading towards Conoco, they asked even when the battle had already begun. But none of the military warned at least one of the Wagner PMC fighters that the Americans were seeing us from the air. At 18:00, most of the representatives of the military command left their jobs, went on vacation, or even, more precisely, fled. And when they began to look for them after the start of the shelling, it turned out that some of them closed themselves in trailers, while others completely changed their place of spending the night so that they could not be reached. From the transcripts of the negotiations, it later became known that the Americans initially saw that Russian units were stationed there. And from 18:00 to 23:45 there were negotiations between the American and Russian military command that if there are units of the Russian Federation there, then it is necessary to urgently stop them. Otherwise, the Americans directly warned, a blow to kill would be dealt, and the units would be destroyed. However, the leadership of the Ministry of Defense ignored the need to warn us about this. Air defense systems, as I said, were all disabled and what happened happened: at 23:45, strikes began on Russian units, which fearlessly met all American power and continued to advance even in fiery hell, not knowing that there was no support from The RF Armed Forces will never come - there were no planes, air defense systems did not work. At 03:00 at night, we finally managed to break through to the headquarters of the RF Armed Forces in order to talk with the officer on duty. There was the only colonel on the remote control who said that he would try to resolve the issue so that the shelling would stop and the Wagner PMC fighters could pull out the bodies of their dead comrades. On February 9, I urgently flew to Moscow and tried to get to Shoigu for an appointment in order to find out what happened after all. I wanted to know why all the agreements collapsed and the tragedy happened on February 8th. The Minister of Defense did not receive me. I signed up on the 10th, 11th, and so on ad infinitum, but he didn't have time to talk to me. Then I caught him at a solemn reception in the Kremlin, where I ended up taking advantage of my opportunities. I approached him and asked: "Can I talk to you about the situation that occurred on February 8 near Deir ez-Zor?" He turned, calmly and arrogantly replied: “Did you want to be a hero? They were heroic. All the heroes are here now, in this hall.” - here he waved his hand around those in expensive suits - "And you just beguiled the coast." This ended the conversation. Tynts Now we can already say, back then I received information from those who control the situation that about 70 of our people were killed and about the same number were injured. But this is without the Syrian auxiliary units. They put in a lot more. |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #1 Even B-52 strategic bombers were raised. ...FAFO, Tovarich. Mike |
| Posted by: MikeKozlowski 2023-06-13 07:12 |