Marines with Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, attached to Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force, Crisis Response, Central Command, fire 81 mm mortars in support of Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve operations Sept. With them were 27 vehicles - including Russian T-72 tanks and armored personnel carriers. The combined group of Syrian forces and Russian mercenaries from the infamous Kremlin-linked Wagner Group swelled to an estimated 500 troops by early evening.
7, 2018, a group of US Marines and Army Special Forces soldiers watched surveillance drone feeds in disbelief as a large enemy force amassed 20 miles away near the eastern bank of the Euphrates River. In February 2018, after three years of gingerly avoiding a direct confrontation, the two world powers went toe to toe for the first time since the end of World War I in what came to be known as the Battle of Khasham - a roughly four-hour battle in which the mighty Russian bear (with its Syrian allies) was reduced to a whimpering pup by a much smaller force of American commandos.Īs the afternoon sun began to sink over the cradle of civilization on Feb. Matthew Callahan.Īgainst that backdrop, Russia and the US opened up a communications hotline to avoid direct conflict with each other while supporting their proxies on opposite sides. The US was allied with Kurdish fighters and the Syrian Democratic Forces against the common enemy of ISIS, but the regional conflict involved an intricate web of disparate factions and objectives.Ī US Marine fires an M777A2 Howitzer in Syria June 1, 2017.
US forces and their allies sought to degrade and destroy the notorious terrorist organization, but the conflict eventually evolved into a proxy war between two superpowers as Russia committed its military forces to defending the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. When the US launched Operation Inherent Resolve in June 2014, its goal was to destroy the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. As much of the world celebrates the modern David versus Goliath story, cracks in the veneer of Russia’s supposed military might have shone through long before the invasion of Ukraine, and a four-hour battle that unfolded in Syria in 2018 is one of the most striking examples. Russian generals continue to die, and reports are describing mass desertions and fratricide on the front lines. The Pentagon estimated more than 7,000 Russian soldiers had been killed since the invasion started, while NATO believes the number could be as high as 15,000. What Vladimir Putin and much of the world originally expected to be a quick and easy victory over their smaller neighbor has rapidly devolved into a military disaster for Russia.
It’s been one month since Russia invaded Ukraine.
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