Will the Russians kick the Americans out of Syria? The United States is withdrawing troops from Syria. Americans are killing Russians for Syrian oil

To the message of Donald Trump that he ordered his troops to leave Syria, I confess, at first I was skeptical. I managed to get used to the fact that the US president can change his mind literally within a few hours. However, it soon became clear that this time his team, often correcting their leader, was not opposed to leaving the Middle East.

In his video message Donald Trump announced that the Americans had won the victory over the Islamic State terrorist group, so they had nothing else to do in the Middle East: “We fought in Syria for a long time. I have been president for almost two years now, and we have really raised the level of fighting, and we have defeated IS. We beat them, beat them very hard, took back the territory, and it's time for our troops to return home. "

We do not care about fables, thanks to which the leader of the United States strengthens the morale of the nation - these are their internal American affairs. It is much more interesting to understand what actually happened, why the Americans made the decision to urgently evacuate their people: the State Department employees will leave Syria within 24 hours, and the military within two months.

I have a version.

Realizing that it will not be possible to completely redraw the map of the Middle East, as planned ten years ago, the Americans decided to moderate their ardor and strengthen their positions at least in key states - Israel and Saudi Arabia, as well as restore influence in Turkey. Moreover, Turkey at this stage is the main goal, since relations with it have fundamentally gone wrong.

In order to return to the stall the unbelievable NATO member who buys the S-400 from Russia, has large joint energy projects with it (Akkuyu NPP and Turkish Stream) and generally entered into allied relations with a geopolitical competitor (Astana format) , two irritants need to be removed: hand over Fethullah Gulen and stop interacting with the Kurds.

The United States, as we know, is already trying with might and main to find an excuse to extradite the preacher, as I have already mentioned. And, apparently, they have already groped for an option - he is about to be accused of tax crimes.

And now it’s the turn of the Kurds, who seem to be abandoned to their fate. On Friday, between Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Donald Trump, phone conversation, during which, apparently, the good news was reported to the Turk. Today, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu spoke on the phone. "The parties discussed the decision of the US administration to withdraw American troops from Syria," Anadolu news agency reported.

This is the same respectful American attention that the Turks have been deprived of for many years.

However, as long as the hostile and distrustful rhetoric of the Turks towards the Americans persists, it is enough to read the list of claims under the heading "The United States through YPG / PKK strengthened its presence in Syria", which appeared just yesterday. However, if Washington does indeed change its policy and heed Ankara's concerns, anti-American sentiment in Turkey is likely to subside. After all, this is a matter of technology, it is enough to direct the propaganda in the local media in the right direction.

But to do this, you need to close 15 American bases located east of the Euphrates, and stop arming the terrorists. According to Turkish data, today the Syrian Kurdish People's Self-Defense Forces (Yekîneyên Parastina Gel, YPG), with the support of the United States, control a quarter of Syria and three quarters of its oil and gas fields. The question is whether the Americans are ready to give up such important acquisitions.

If you are ready, then Erdogan, I believe, is not at all averse to becoming the main American partner in the region again. Moreover, Washington is demonstratively changing its policy towards Ankara; recently, the State Department even approved the sale of Patriot missile defense systems to Turkey. Such a step, you must agree, is fundamentally different from the collapse of the national currency or threats to impose sanctions in the event of the purchase of the S-400 from us.

I never expected that the rapprochement between Ankara and Moscow would last forever. It is too important a country and a military ally for the Americans to embrace it. For example, without the active participation of this influential Black Sea power, it is hardly possible to greatly prevent us from putting things in order in Ukraine.

Therefore, let us fix it: today Turkey began to drift towards the West.

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Due to Russia's intervention in the Syrian conflict, the United States failed to achieve the goals it set for itself in the Middle East. As a result, the reputation of the hegemon was dealt a crushing blow.

Please note that it was not only Turkey, Iraq and Syria that had to be cut off. Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan were also to lose territory. Kurdistan was supposed to get access to the Black Sea.

Still, Americans love to draw new borders of foreign states - to divide and rule. But it doesn't always work out.

For several days in a row, serious passions have been raging about the Syrian story with the Wagner PMC. Bloggers wrote about this for 24 hours, and on the Web - this is how almost real battles took place.

It all began with the fact that on the night of February 7-8, a strange news was thrown on the Internet about the alleged "huge losses of the Russian military" in the battle near the settlement of Khashsham in the province of Deir ez-Zor (Ukrainian sources variant - "the death of mercenaries from Russia "). “During the 3-hour US attack, the Russian PMC Wagner suffered the greatest losses in the entire history of its presence in Syria,” they confidently wrote.

The primary sources of all this top-secret information were: Igor Girkin (Strelkov), Conflict Intelligence Team, el-murid (Anatoly Nesmiyan). Soon even the lawyer Feigin got involved in spreading the "insider". and the time has come for “triumphant” publications by the Ukrainian media.

It is impossible to take seriously the statements of the great "strategist" Girkin-Strelkov, according to which, the number of those killed in this clash has reached as much as 600 people. It is no less difficult to believe in the Conflict Intelligence Team, led by Ruslan Leviev, who is not allowed to sleep peacefully by Bellingcat's laurels. There are reports of "200 or more dead".

“The Russian military, who were trying to squeeze the oil field, came under a massive blow by the US forces, the losses are huge, the authorities are hiding it,” the information was presented in approximately this manner. The death toll depended on the degree of "awareness" and the imagination of the squeakers.

Here it must be said that our "military experts" from the Web were not the first to speak at all about possible losses in the ranks of the Wagner PMC. For example, one of the first Western journalists to write about this was the correspondent of CNN Barbara Star.

In her opinion, it is possible that in the attack on the SDF forces, along with the SAA fighters, "Russian fighters also took part." To withdraw its charges from the Syrian Free Army from under the attack of government forces, the United States used AC-130, F-15S, F-22 aircraft, Apache combat helicopters and marine artillery.

Further, this story began to grow overgrown with rumors, conjectures, which were called "completely reliable facts" and almost "eyewitness testimony of the battle." At the same time, of course, the writers referred to completely "official" data from the Pentagon and statements by the American military. What did the Pentagon really say about this? On February 8, CBS News reported on US airstrikes in response to an attack by Syrian government forces.

The publication suggests that not only the Syrian military, but also the Russians from PMCs could have come under attack, and if so, then this will be "the first time that Russians have suffered from an American strike."

The same material cites the words of the head of the Pentagon, James Mattis, who does not deny that the Russians could have come under attack, but does not believe that "the Russians could have had any losses."

However, bloggers, painting the battle in paints and naming the numbers of losses, referred to some video facts that the American defense department allegedly has. True, not a single reference to such "facts" for all the days while this story with the PMC rages on the Internet has not been shown. And this hints to us that there are no “video facts” and there never were.

On the morning of February 9, Girkin-Strelkov reports on his page: "Clarification from yesterday's report on the heavy losses of Wagner: Destroyed the 5th assault detachment, an armored group and an artillery unit."

Next, the administration of the Soldier of Fortune group, known for its connections with the Wagner PMC fighters, also made a statement on this topic, full of chilling details: “We do not intend to be silent! Indeed, in Syria, when a convoy of our guys' personnel approached the positions of the Kurds to attack their positions in order to capture some of the objects on which the United States had long had an eye, as well as on the Kurds, the column was almost completely destroyed. The number of 200s is very large, very many guys are not subject to identification ... At first, Arta worked-completed the "turntables". We struck a blow to the front and into the depths .. Our personnel did not even have time to dismount. "

Later, a transcript of the negotiations "evidence of an attack by Americans on ours in Syria" published on the basis of data from the WarGonzo Telegram channel appeared.

In the recording of the voices of three people who say that "they beat the Pindos, first they covered it with art," then - "four turntables and they launched into the carousel from heavy machine guns." At the same time, the PMC fighters were armed only with machine guns, "not to mention there some kind of MANPADS and so on."

The speakers noted that the American side "clearly knew" that "the Russians were going to squeeze out the plant." The credibility of this record has not been established.

What do official sources say about all this? Let's start with the Russian Ministry of Defense, which said that Syrian militias came under coalition fire in the province of Deir ez-Zor on February 7 due to uncoordinated military actions. As a result of the incident, 25 militias were injured. There are no Russian servicemen in that area, the Ministry of Defense specified.

Note, nevertheless, that speaking about the absence of Russian servicemen in this area, the RF Ministry of Defense means the official troops. According to the available and indirectly confirmed information, in Syria, along with the Russian military, a private military campaign, known in the media as PMC "Wagner", is unofficially operating, consisting of citizens of Russia and neighboring countries.

The Pentagon also spoke about the incident again: Russian forces were not in the area where the attack on the headquarters of the Democratic Syrian Forces (SDF), supported by Washington, was allegedly carried out on February 7.

This was announced by the head of the US Defense Department, James Mattis. A transcript of his speech was circulated by the US Department of Defense.

Speaking about what happened, Mattis again noted: “The Russians told us that from the very beginning their forces were not there. I think that it is, but we do not have complete clarity about what the regime forces are doing there. But at least it’s calm there now. ”

“As you know, we are making every effort not to endanger the Russians,” he said, adding that “the pro-government forces, for some reason, apparently without informing the Russians, without coordination with anyone, crossed the river and attacked, ”added Mattis.

Shamil Sultanov, President of the Russia-Islamic World Strategic Research Center, shared his opinion on what actually happened on the night of February 7-8 in the Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor. each side of the Syrian conflict has its own interpretation of events, and its own arguments, and its own logic.

“The offensive of the pro-government forces in this region was conditioned by the fact that Deir ez-Zor is the territory of sovereign Syria. And Damascus was not a signatory of any kind of informal agreements between Russia and the United States on zones of responsibility in Syria. Therefore, the offensive of Damascus in this region was logical, natural, ”he said.

At the same time, the expert continued, the Americans are confident that in a military environment it is necessary to observe not formal issues, but those actual things that are currently operating in this area, for which the Kurds are responsible, and the United States supports them.

“There is some kind of agreement between Russia and the Americans about different zones of influence. And this is more important from the American point of view than the formal constitution, laws, and so on, in the Syrian Arab Republic. This is the main reason why there was a clash there, "Sultanov said, adding that the Americans say they warned Moscow, but Moscow denies it. This suggests that there was a discrepancy here.

“Like the Americans, Moscow has its own truth, which proceeds from the fact that in such conditions as war, it is necessary to maintain a balance - on the one hand, take into account the power that the United States and the international coalition have, which formally includes more than sixty countries, who are fighting against terrorists, and Russia says in every possible way that we are fighting terrorists with the entire civilized world. On the other hand, Moscow believes that Damascus and Tehran are the closest allies of the Russian Federation in the Syrian conflict, ”the expert emphasized.

As for the losses of a private military team, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation is not obliged to report them, Sultanov believes: these private military teams, Wagnerovskaya, for example, are primarily focused on protecting those facilities that are strategically important for Russia: Khmeimim, Tartus , certain oil refineries, which, among other things, supply our forces with oil products that are there. therefore, there are no Russian representatives in the mass of these forces.

“There were possible units, so the mass death of Russian citizens, even from these volunteer units, as they are also called, private, is basically impossible to say - this is an element of information war,” the expert believes. But the fact that the Ukrainian media showed keen interest in this story is quite understandable: for the official state propaganda of Ukraine, maintaining the military consciousness of Ukrainians in relations with Moscow is an important point.

“And in this sense, in every possible way, they should emphasize, at convenient and inconvenient occasions, about the vulnerability of the Russian armed forces, and those soldiers whose formations are associated with Russia. This is also an element of military, military propaganda, ”Shamil Sultanov said.

Washington- The artillery fire was so intense that American commandos jumped into the trenches to hide from it, and then climbed, covered with dust and mud, to respond to the fire of a tank column, which was advancing under powerful air strikes. It was the start of a nearly four-hour offensive in February involving some 500 Syrian pro-government fighters, including Russian mercenaries, and the battle threatened to explode already tense relations between Moscow and Washington.

As a result, from 200 to 300 attackers were killed. The rest retreated under the merciless airstrikes of the American Air Force, and then returned to pick up the dead from the battlefield. None of the Americans, who were at a small outpost in eastern Syria (and by the end of the battle there were about 40 of them), were not injured.

Details of the February 7 clash were obtained from interviews and documents obtained by The New York Times. For the Pentagon, this was the first public report from the site of one of the bloodiest battles in Syria, in which the American military took part, who arrived there to fight the "Islamic State" ( prohibited in Russia - approx. transl.)

According to the Pentagon, this clash was an act of self-defense against a militant formation of pro-government forces in Syria. American military leaders who gave interviews said that on the eve of this offensive, they watched with fear as hundreds of enemy troops, vehicles and artillery pieces arrived at the site of the future battle.

A possible collision between the Russian and American military has long been feared, since they are on opposite sides in the seven-year Syrian civil war.

In the worst case, such a clash could lead the two countries to a bloody conflict, officials and experts say. And at least the confrontation between the military of the two countries on the battlefield, where there are already many participants, has increased the already serious tension between Russia and the United States, which are seeking to increase their influence in the Middle East.

The commanders of the opposing military contingents have long been trying to stay away from each other, often talking on the phone as part of an ongoing deconflicting process. In anticipation of that memorable offensive, the Russian and American military on opposite banks of the Euphrates supported separate offensives by their supporters against the Islamic State in the oil-bearing province of Deir ez-Zor, which borders Iraq.

Context

Russian mercenaries were bombed for three hours

The grief of the Russian mother

Americans are killing Russians for Syrian oil

The documents indicate that the militants were part of the pro-government forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Among them were government soldiers and militias, but US military and intelligence officials say most of them were private Russian military mercenaries, most likely from the Wagner Group, whose services the Kremlin resorts to when the Russian government wants to distance itself from performed military tasks.

“The Russian military command in Syria has assured us that these are not their people,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in a speech to senators last month. According to him, after that he gave instructions to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to destroy this group.

And she was destroyed.

Concentration of troops

The beginning of the day did not even hint that the battle was about to begin.

A group of 30 Delta and Special Forces troops worked with Kurds and Arabs at a small and dusty checkpoint near the Konoko oil refinery, near the town of Deir ez-Zor.

About 30 kilometers from them, at the support site, a detachment of green berets and a platoon of marines looked at computer screens, receiving information from drones about the accumulation of militants and transmitting it to the Americans from the refinery.

At 15:00, Syrian troops began to move towards the Konoko plant. By evening, more than 500 soldiers and 27 vehicles, including tanks and armored personnel carriers, had accumulated there.

At the US Air Operations Center in El Udeida, Qatar, as well as at the Pentagon, intelligence officers and analysts watched with perplexity. The commanders gave instructions to the pilots and ground maintenance teams. According to the military, all aircraft in the region were put on alert.

And at the support site, the green berets and the marines trained a small response squad in mine-protected vehicles of 16 in case they were needed at the Konoko enterprise. People checked weapons and loaded vehicles with anti-tank missiles, thermal imagers, food and water.

At 20:30, three 50-ton Russian T-72 tanks with 125-mm guns approached the refinery at a distance of one and a half kilometers. In anticipation of the attack, the Green Berets prepared to use their reaction forces.

At the checkpoint, American soldiers watched as the convoy of tanks and other armored vehicles turned and began to approach them. It was at about 22:00. They appeared from the side of the houses, where they tried to concentrate imperceptibly.

Half an hour later, Russian mercenaries and Syrian forces struck.

Tanks, artillery and mortars opened fire at the checkpoint near the Konoko plant, as evidenced by documents. The air was filled with dust and debris. The American special forces took cover, and then hid behind the breastworks of the trenches to open fire from ATGM and machine guns at the advancing column of armored vehicles.

For the first 15 minutes, American commanders called their Russian counterparts and urged them to stop the attack. They did not succeed, and then the Americans fired several warning shots at a group of cars and a howitzer.

But the troops continued to advance.

Blow from afar

Then came the waves of American aircraft, among which were Reaper drones, F-22 stealth fighters, F-15E strike fighters, B-52 bombers, AC-130 fire support aircraft and AH-64 Apache helicopters. According to the US military, for the next three hours, aircraft ironed enemy troops, tanks and other vehicles. The marines fired multiple launch rocket systems from the ground.

The response group hastened to the scene of the battle. According to the documents, by that time it was dark, the roads were strewn with wires from the fallen power lines, and they were all in the craters from the shells. Driving was also difficult due to the fact that car drivers did not turn on their headlights, relying solely on thermal imaging cameras.

By 11:30 am, green berets and marines approached the Konoko refinery, but were forced to stop. The artillery fire was too dangerous, and the Americans began to wait for their aircraft to silence the enemy's howitzers and tanks.

At the plant itself, the enemy pressed the commandos to the ground with artillery fire, and they were forced to respond to him with return fire. In the dark, flashes of shots from tank guns, anti-aircraft guns and machine guns were visible.

At one o'clock in the morning, as the artillery fire began to subside, a group of marines and green berets crept up to the checkpoint and began firing. By that time, some of the American planes had returned to the base, having used up their ammunition and fuel.

The 40-man US military on the battlefield began to prepare for defense when the mercenaries left the vehicles and began to approach the checkpoint on foot.

A group of Marines brought ammunition to the machine guns and Javelin ATGMs mounted on the parapet and between the vehicles. Some green berets and marines aimed at the enemy from open hatches. The rest sat inside the vehicles and fired from heavy machine guns mounted on the roofs using remote control and thermal imagers.

Some of the special forces, including aircraft controllers, directed a new group of bombers approaching the battlefield by radio communication. At least one Marine found himself in the line of fire, using a missile guidance computer to search for targets and transmit data to the commandos who called in the aircraft.

An hour later, the enemy began to withdraw, and the Americans ceased fire. Commandos from their checkpoint watched as mercenaries and Syrian militants returned to the battlefield to pick up the dead. One Syrian fighter on the side of the Americans was wounded.

Who directed this ill-fated attack?

At first, Russian officials said that only four Russian citizens had died, and then added that there could be dozens of deaths. One Syrian officer described the deaths of approximately 100 Syrian soldiers. Documents obtained by The New York Times indicate that between 200 and 300 people were killed by pro-government forces.

The outcome of the battle and its dynamics indicate that the Russian mercenaries and their Syrian allies are in the wrong place, trying to conduct a primitive massive offensive against American combat positions. Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, US Central Command has done a tremendous amount of work optimizing weapons and equipment, combat tactics, interaction and logistics, and the composition of weapons firing from the air and from the ground.

Questions remain unanswered about who these Russian mercenaries were and why they went on the offensive.

US intelligence officials say the Wagner Group, which is nicknamed by the nickname of its retired Russian officer in charge, is in Syria to seize oil and gas fields in the interests of the Assad government and then guard them. The mercenaries receive a portion of the profits from mining in these fields.

The mercenaries have little interaction with the Russian military in Syria, although the leaders of the Wagner Group reportedly received awards in the Kremlin, and its fighters are being trained at the bases of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Russian government forces in Syria claim they did not participate in that battle. But according to the US military command, they have recently begun to interfere with small American drones and attack helicopters such as those used in the battle in Deir ez-Zor.

“Syria is currently waging the most active electronic warfare on the planet, and is being waged by our adversaries,” General Tony Thomas, head of Special Operations Command, said recently. "They put us to the test every day."

Contributors to this article were Eric Schmitt, C.J. Chivers, and Kitty Bennett.

InoSMI materials contain assessments exclusively of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the InoSMI editorial board.

American soldiers and instructors leave Syria

Initially, information about the withdrawal of the military was reported by sources in the American administration, then the White House officially announced this. Its representative, Sarah Sanders, said that the withdrawal of troops and State Department employees is associated with the defeat of the "territorial caliphate" of the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, banned in Russia) and the transition of the operation against the militants "into a new phase."

At the same time, the decision does not mean that the activities of the international coalition led by the United States, as well as its campaign, will end. Sanders noted that Washington and its allies will continue to be ready to return if necessary and defend American interests. “We will continue to work together to deprive radical Islamic terrorists of territory, funding, support,” she added.

Details of the operation are not disclosed for the sake of safety

From Sanders' statement, it is not entirely clear whether all the American military, of whom there are now about 2 thousand in Syria, will leave its territory. It also does not indicate when it will be done.

As the US Department of Defense spokeswoman Dana White explained, the withdrawal of troops has already begun, but details will not be disclosed "in the interests of protecting the forces and in the interests of the safety of operations," reports. She also noted that Washington will continue to work with allies to defeat IS wherever the group operates.

At the same time, sources said that a complete withdrawal of troops would take 60 to 100 days. In this case, all employees of the State Department will be sent home within 24 hours.

Trump announced victory over IS

The President of the United States wrote about the fulfillment of the country's tasks in Syria on his page in Twitter... “We defeated IS in Syria, the only reason we were there during my presidency,” he said.

The defeat and destruction of the group was one of Trump's campaign promises. Earlier in December, the American leader said that the militants of the group would be driven out of their territories within a month. He spoke of the imminent departure of the American military from Syria back in April, but later the head of the Pentagon, James Mattis, said that the troops would not leave the country until the situation in the region became stable.

Russia and Iran will benefit from this decision

They, along with Turkey, will remain the only influential forces in the region - this will make it possible to cleanse the country's territory from all groups disloyal to Assad, who may be offered to either go to the Turkish-controlled zone, or die in battle. With the support of Moscow, Damascus can restore almost complete control over the country's territory - except for the territories bordering with Turkey, which are controlled by Ankara and its Sunni rebel groups loyal to it.

US allies in Syria called the incident a betrayal

The New York Times reports that the Americans warned the Kurds about their decision on the morning of December 19. After that, the fighters of the "Democratic Forces of Syria" - an alliance of Kurdish and Arab groups supported by the United States - called Washington's decision a betrayal and a stab in the back, according to Sky News Arabia.

Not everyone in Washington supports the withdrawal

The American senators Lindsay Graham and Marco Rubio have already expressed their dissatisfaction. They believe that the decision will be a fatal mistake both for the United States and for the region and the whole world, and its consequences will affect not only the fight against the "Islamic State". “This would be a great victory for IS, Iran, [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad and Russia,” Graham said. He added that the withdrawal of troops would show Washington's weakness.

According to The New York Times, in recent days, during meetings and telephone conversations, US Department of Defense officials tried to dissuade Trump from making such a decision. They pointed out that the withdrawal of troops would lead to a major shift in national security policy, and the United States would, in effect, cede Russia and Iran in Syria. They also noted that IS is still holding territory on the border with Iraq. In addition, the Pentagon believes that Washington's departure actually means that it is abandoning its Kurdish allies, whom it traditionally supported.

Turkey influenced the US decision

Faisal Mikdad, deputy head of the Syrian Foreign Ministry, demanded that U.S.A so that they immediately withdraw their troops from the territory of the Arab Republic. The diplomat warned that otherwise the SAR government would view the American forces operating in the country as hostile troops. According to the deputy head of the Syrian Foreign Ministry, the so-called US-led anti-terrorist coalition is not so much fighting terrorists Islamic State 1(activity is prohibited in the Russian Federation), how much it destroys the infrastructure of the republic and kills civilians.

Thus, the actions of the Western alliance do not at all meet the interests of ordinary residents of the SAR. In addition, the American troops have no legal basis to be on the territory of the republic, Mikdad recalled. The US military and its allies entered Syria and launched a large-scale military campaign here without an official invitation from Damascus or the sanction of the UN Security Council.

At the moment, Washington has three military bases in the SAR: two in the Kurdish-controlled province. Hasaka and one more - near the settlement Kobani in the northwest of Aleppo at the very Turkish border. At the same time, American forces are supporting the Kurdish To the democratic forces of Syria(SDF) and People's self-defense units(YPG), which continue the operation to capture Raqqa and in parallel prepare for an offensive in the province of Deir ez-Zor.

Is there a chance that the United States, if it does not curtail its campaign in the SAR, will at least somehow adequately respond to the statement of the Syrian diplomat? Editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine, member of the Public Council under the Russian Ministry of Defense Igor Korotchenko noted in conversation with Federal News Agency(FAN) that the United States will not take any action in connection with this demand of official Damascus. Moreover, the representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the SAR probably understand this themselves and, accordingly, hardly expect any intelligible answer from Washington.

“The United States will not react in any way to this statement. The Syrians themselves probably understand that this is a purely political statement. In military terms, we have already had several episodes when, when Syrian government forces or pro-government paramilitary formations approached the location of American special forces groups, coalition aviation attacked the columns of the SAR army and allies in order to prevent their possible fire and combat contact with the US military. "

Such behavior of the American forces, which bomb the facilities of the army of the country on whose territory they are illegally located, suggests that oral demands are virtually useless and can hardly lead to the desired result. The expert is sure that the United States still does not intend to leave the territory of the Arab republic.

“In any case, American special forces will continue to operate in Syria in the near future. Of course, this is illegal from the point of view of international law, but the United States did not care about the laws. It is obvious that until the situation in the SAR is completely stabilized, other incidents related to the US military presence will occur. "

Recently, for example, there have been more and more reports that Kurdish forces are advancing on the Deir ez-Zor province under the auspices of the United States. In such a case, US-backed SDF and YPG fighters may interfere with the operation. Syrian Arab Army(CAA) and the Russian Aerospace Forces to liberate the capital of the region from the occupation of the "Islamic State". Then new armed clashes between Kurdish fighters and government servicemen and new civilian casualties at the hands of the Americans are not excluded. However, the Russian side, Igor Korotchenko emphasizes, will undoubtedly make every effort to prevent such incidents from happening.

"I think that the Russian military command, when planning an operation against ISIS 1 in Deir ez-Zor, will do everything to ensure that it goes as smoothly as possible and without any complications."

1 The organization is prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation.