Euphratic labor

Sensational messages about the clashes in the Syrian province of Deir ez-zor on the night of February 7 to 8 are overgrown with new details, but the sources of these details are unreliable, and there is still no complete clarity.

The Russian Ministry of Defense and the Pentagon made comments on the incident on February 8. The Russian Ministry of Defense said that the incident was a consequence of the actions of the "Syrian militias", who did not agree on their "intelligence and search" operations with the Russian command. As a result, 25 "militias" were injured. There were no Russian troops in the area of ​​clashes. According to the Ministry of Defense, "the incident has once again demonstrated that the true goal of continuing the illegal finding of the United States on the territory of Syria is no longer the fight against the international terrorist grouping of ISIS, but the seizure and retention of economic assets belonging only to the Syrian Arab Republic."

On the same day in Washington, the US Minister of Defense James Mattis outlined his version of what happened: “For some reason, the Prosadov’s forces - and again I have no explanation why they did it - advanced to the positions of the SDS (Syrian democratic forces), where there were some American military presence. The tanks were moving in the same direction in which the shells flew.

The Minister several times persistently emphasized that the collision area is included in the de -escalation zone and the zone regime was never previously violated. “We don’t think,” said Mattis, “that there were Russians, but I don’t affirm this, I only set out our opinion based on what happened.” When asked whether the Pentagon determined who was his opponent, the minister replied: "We are trying." Were there Russian contractors among them? And to this Mattis answered evasively: “I don’t think. The Russians would tell us. If they knew, they would probably say. At the moment I don’t want to say who they were or were not, because I do not have such information.”

Colonel Thomas Wil, the head of the public relations department for public relations, published his message about the incident. It says that about 500 people, 122-mm artillery guns, T-55 and T-72 tanks, as well as multiple fire and mortars, participated in the attack on the SDS position and their headquarters. “After from 20 to 30 artillery and tank shells, it exploded within 500 meters from the headquarters,” Wil writes, “the SDS, with the support of the coalition, inflicted a series of aviation and artillery blows on aggressors. At that time, advisers from the coalition were at the headquarters, and these actions were taken in the order of self -defense.”

A few hours after the clashes, several American journalists and the commander of the operations of American special forces in Syria and Iraq, Major General James Gerard, heard a story about the incident from his direct participant - the regional commander of the SDS, whose backbone is Kurds. The commander introduced himself as General Hassan. The next morning, the Washington Post published a correspondence of the newspaper observer David Ignishius, who was present at a meeting with Hassan. Its text is marked with the toponym "Esh-Shaddad"-this is 80 kilometers north-east of the place of clashes near the village of Khasham. All reports about the incident on Russian -speaking sites that appeared later are a more or less conscientious retelling of Ignishius's report.

"General Hassan" said that the positions of the SDS were attacked by two armored columns, which advanced from the asadian bridgehead on the left bank of the Euphrates. (The Left Bank in this area is controlled by the Kurds, and the right bank with the Prosadov forces.) Having received a report on the approach of the first column, Hassan called the Russian communications officer in the hope of preventing a clash at 21:30. (Ignishius does not specify, but, apparently, it was the duty department of the center for reconciliation of the warring parties.) However, he replied that he did not know about any movements of the troops. The Americans, they said, also made contact with the Russian military and tried to prevent a clash, but to no avail. Around 22:00, the column, which included the artillery battery, went to the demarcation line and opened fire on the positions of the Kurds. Meanwhile, the second column began to move from the bridgehead.

The Kurds retreated from the first line of defense, and the Americans called the air support. After "crushing", as Ignineshius expressed, the Russian soldiers themselves contacted the SDS headquarters and asked to stop fire in order to take the dead and the wounded from the battlefield. On this basis, General Hassan concludes that the attackers were Russian. The aviation tank stopped, but the ground clashes continued for some time. The battle ended at 5:30 in the morning.

According to Ignishius, which, apparently, shares the command of the SDS, the purpose of the offensive was an oil and gas field with an oil refinery. All the sides fighters in Syria experience the most acute energy hunger, and the Kurds who captured this area last September (and generally controlling almost all energy sources in the province) hold it as an “bargaining coin” (they crave international recognition of their statehood).

It is difficult to judge how reliable the information of General Hassan is. According to independent observers, a bridgehead on the left bank is controlled by Russian private military formations, primarily the Wagner PMC. There were also non -verification of the message about the transfer to this bridgehead of the units of the Russian army special forces - the forces of special operations (MTR). The Conflict Intelligence Team, using open sources in social networks, called the names of the five dead, who allegedly served in the Wagner PMC.

From the point of view of Russian legislation, the activities of PMCs are illegal. According to article 359 of the Criminal Code, it can be qualified as mercenary. However, Vladimir Putin back in April 2012, when the Prime Minister, called the PMC "an instrument for the realization of national interests without the direct participation of the state." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recently spoke for the legalization of PMCs: “Such a practice,” the minister said, “was distributed in many countries of the world. This was happening in Iraq, in other countries of the region where the so -called“ Blackwood ”worked, which was then renamed something else. I think that these people need to be clearly for those who are also in the legal field and are protected.” Legislators were not long in coming. The corresponding billwill be submitted to the State Duma in the near future.

In the array of information about the battle on Euphrates, it is striking that the data on catastrophic scale for Russia are extended primarily by commentators of the nationalist and procting sense. Igor Strelkov-Girkin increased the figure of Russian losses from one hundred to 644 people. The decryption of the radio converters of the two Russian military (I wonder where did she come from?), In which the interlocutors say that the Pindos to our "boys" "arranged hell", published by Semyon Pegov, who was not seen in the opposition to the Kremlin. And the Prochrevsky "look" retold and quoted and quoted .

It seems that this is one of the methods of election mobilization of the population on the basis of patriotism, anti -Americanism and confrontation of hostile surroundings.

Meanwhile, it may be about the first clashes of the United States and Russia - direct, not indirect, through proxy -lines. The Supreme Commander -in -Chief Putin clearly did not expect the Americans to decide to do so. Therefore, the first reaction was categorical denial. But now in the Kremlin they realized that the defeat also had propaganda potential: after all, citizens did not come to anti -war demonstrations on the occasion of the death of the pilot Roman Filipov. On the contrary: this sacrifice is recognized as a reasonable and necessary society.