Battle of Khasham

In September 2014, the United States began to undertake efforts to establish a global coalition with the declared aim of countering the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Since September 2014, the U.S. had conducted military operations in Syria, primarily against ISIL forces as part of Operation Inherent Resolve. The primary U.S.-backed force in the northeastern part of Syria is the Syrian Democratic Forces, a group composed predominantly of Kurdish and Arab militiamen. In 2017, backed by U.S. forces, the SDF captured Raqqa from the Islamic State and then advanced to the Euphrates River, where a deconfliction line was established by the governments of the United States and Russia. On several occasions, U.S. forces struck Syrian pro-government units operating in the area. In November 2017, the U.S. government made it known that they were expanding their goals in Syria beyond routing ISIL forces, to pressure the Syrian government to make concessions at the Geneva talks. This intent was, in mid-January 2018, clearly broadcast by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who said the Trump administration would maintain an open-ended military presence in Syria to counter Iranian influence and ensure the departure of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Russia had been conducting air military operations in Syria in support of the Syrian government since 30 September 2015. Furthermore, Russian private military contractors ("volunteers"), notably those associated with the Wagner Group, had been engaged in ground operations throughout that time, although their presence was never officially confirmed by the Russian government. Harrigian presented the U.S. strike as demonstration of the coalition's readiness "to prevent a resurgence of ISIS". A few days before, Prigozhin had been indicted by the grand jury for the District of Columbia on charges related to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections. A publication by the Ukraine-based anti-Kremlin InformNapalm alleged the operation had been cleared with the Russian military command by Sergey Kim, the chief of Wagner's operations department and a former Russian Naval Infantry officer. ==Incident and casualties==

U.S. version According to the U.S. military's official statement, around 10 p.m. local time on the night of 7 February 2018, a force of 500 pro-government fighters consisting of local militiamen, Syrian Army regulars, Shia militants from Liwa Fatemiyoun and Liwa Zainebiyoun, and reportedly Russian private military contractors, launched an assault on an SDF headquarters near Khasham. The clashes lasted four hours and saw more than 100 Syrian pro-government fighters killed, with one SDF fighter injured, according to the coalition. No U.S. troops were reported killed or wounded. During the two weeks following the incident, U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis and other U.S. military officials repeatedly stated that American military commanders were in contact with their official Russian counterparts prior to, during, and after the clash, and that the U.S military was told by their Russian counterparts that there were no Russians in the paramilitary formation. On 13 February 2018, unclassified footage depicting the coalition's targeted airstrikes on a pro-government T-72 tank position and a reported Russian contractor artillery position in the Khasham area was released by the Department of Defense. Syrian government version In an official statement that was released by the "ISIS Hunters" unit of the Syrian Armed Forces, they had received intelligence that ISIL forces were moving towards Khasham and government forces decided to move from the Euphrates so to cut off ISIL's line of attack. At this point, armed groups were spotted east of Khasham, in SDF-held territory, which then attacked the government's troops. The groups were quickly pushed back. The military claimed that, according to intercepted radio traffic, the groups were partly ISIL and partly Kurds, and retreated towards the Conoco factory. At this point, pro-government units were hit by airstrikes. According to Syrian military sources, some 55 pro-government fighters were killed, including around 10 Russian fighters. The Syrian government's dependence on these ground forces for territorial control, a consequence of severe manpower shortages in the Syrian military, Der Spiegel report did not indicate whether this formation was under Iranian or Syrian command or what attempt, if any, Russia made to force the Syrian and Iranian governments to comply with these U.S.–Russian agreements. At around 5 a.m. on 7 February 2018, around 250 of these fighters attempted to cross the Euphrates over a military pontoon bridge located to the southeast of both the Deir ez-Zor Airport and the SDF base near Khasham. Warning shots fired by U.S. military forces in the area stopped this morning advance, and the fighters withdrew back to the west of the Euphrates; these warning shots did not result in any injuries. According to Der Spiegel report, no Russians were in either formation, though there was a small contingent of Russian private military contractors (PMCs) stationed in Tabiyeh who were not participating in the fighting. Notwithstanding that, between 10 and 20 of the Russians were killed in the U.S. strikes, while most of the formations' deaths were reportedly among the servicemen of the 4th Armoured Division of the Syrian Army. Further strikes were carried out on the mornings of 8 and 9 February on tribal militia members that had come to retrieve dead bodies. including 45 who died in the coalition airstrikes, with most being Syrians. Unofficial Russian sources version Shortly after the strikes, various Russian unofficial sources began to publicize information that a number of Russian "volunteers" (PMCs) had been killed in the strikes, with some posts on Russian social media making claims of over 200 Russian PMCs being killed, although the veracity of this information was questioned and could not be confirmed. Yevgeny Shabayev, a known critic of the company that hired the contractors, also claimed 218 PMCs were killed and that the families were still waiting for their remains. Additionally, a Russian military doctor, a leader of a PMC-linked paramilitary Cossack organization, and a source with ties to Wagner claimed 80–100 PMCs were killed and 200 wounded. and estimated a total of between 20 and 30 had died. A Russian journalist also believed between 20 and 25 PMCs died in the strikes. a Wagner leader, Andrei Troshev, was quoted as saying 14 "volunteers" died in the battle. Three other Wagner commanders also stated the claim of 200 dead was an exaggeration and that 15 PMCs were killed at the most. Russian newspaper Kommersant, citing Russian military and contractor sources, reported pro-government forces were attempting to capture the Conoco (locally called Al Tabiyeh) gas field from the SDF. ==Official reaction==

• – Russian member of parliament Frants Klintsevich called U.S. strikes illegal and an act of aggression. Russia has accused the U.S. of being motivated by the presence of oil in the area. On 8 February 2018, the Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, without referring to the U.S. strike, spoke of "the U.S. military presence in Syria present[ing] a serious challenge to the peace process and thwart[ing] the protection of the country's territorial integrity." • – The Syrian foreign ministry wrote to the United Nations calling for the international community to condemn U.S. actions and labeled them a war crime, a "brutal massacre", and a crime against humanity. The Syrian government also accused American forces of aiding terrorism and violating Syria's sovereignty. ==Political ramifications in Russia and abroad==

In the wake of the incident, in the absence of any official comments in response to allegations about Russian fatalities, details about Russian citizens' involvement and casualties in the U.S. strike began to be made public through social and mass media, provoking resentment and outrage from sections of the Russian public. The issue gained additional sensitivity in Russia in view of the upcoming presidential election in March 2018. who in late February 2018 was registered as an authorized representative of Sergey Baburin, leader of the nationalist Russian All-People's Union and candidate for the 2018 Russian presidential election. Bloomberg, as well as other commentators, opined that both the Russian government and Trump administration, in their official statements, appeared to try obfuscating any Russian government role in the incident. Irek Murtazin of Novaya Gazeta and analyst Yury Barmin speculated that the Russian Ministry of Defence may have wittingly let the Wagner unit find itself in harm's way. On 12 February 2018, Grigory Yavlinsky called on President Vladimir Putin to present an account of whether any Russian military forces had been involved in the battle. Meanwhile, Russia's government-run news agency TASS acknowledged, with reference to a Cossack organisation, the death in a battle near Deir ez-Zor of a Russian "volunteer", sotnik Vladimir Loginov, a resident of the Kaliningrad Region. The news media also named four more Russians killed during the strike, including Kirill Ananiev, a veteran member of the banned National Bolshevik Party. News outlets also noted that Vladimir Putin abruptly cancelled most of his previously announced engagements scheduled for 12 and 13 February, his press service citing ill health, and instead had a secret conference with his top military chiefs; he also had a telephone conversation with U.S. president Donald Trump on 12 February, with no details revealed. Russian politician Viktor Alksnis, authorised representative of Communist Party presidential election candidate Pavel Grudinin, voiced an opinion on Radio Liberty that the U.S. strike was designed as a demonstration of the U.S.'s military superiority and dominance in the region, and that it might have serious geopolitical consequences for Russia. On 14 February, presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov admitted the possibility that some Russian citizens who were not part of Russia's armed forces were in Syria, but dismissed reports of mass casualties as false. The following day, the Russian foreign ministry's spokesperson Maria Zakharova conceded that five Russian citizens might have been killed in the U.S. attack; she emphasized that they were not members of the Russian Armed Forces. State Duma Defense Committee Chairman Vladimir Shamanov, citing reported casualties of Russian PMCs, said the Russian parliament was working on a bill that would regulate activities of private military contractors, which he said was necessary. On 16 February, Viktor Alksnis said that the preliminary figure of Russian fatalities in the strike, based on information from the relatives and friends, stood at 334, mainly the personnel of the 5th storm squadron; he also said that, according to his information, personnel of Russia's Special Operations Forces were also involved in "the raid" on 7 February. This was in contrast to CIT's earlier confirmation by name of no more than eight dead. On the same day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in a Euronews channel interview said, "[The United States] seem to be seeking to isolate a vast part of the Syrian territory from the rest of the country in violation of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity." According to an insider source quoted on 19 February by Vedomosti, there were 50 citizens of Russia and Ukraine dead as a result of the U.S. strike. On 20 February 2018, the Russian foreign ministry released a statement which, while admitting that there had been citizens of Russia and "countries of the CIS" killed and wounded in the course of the "recent clash" in Syria, claimed that no Russian service members or their materiel had been involved in any way. Following the statement, the foreign ministries of Belarus and Kazakhstan were reported to be checking if there were casualties among their countries' citizens, but stated they had no information to confirm that Belarusians or Kazakhstanis had been killed or wounded. In late February 2018, CNN quoted multiple Russian sources claiming that those seeking to publicise information about the casualties in the 7 February strike were being harassed and silenced, presumably by people loyal to Yevgeny Prigozhin. Several Russian online news outlets, citing Syria's media and ex-KGB officer Igor Panarin, published unconfirmed reports that the Su-57 fighters, deployed to Syria since February 2017, had taken part in strikes against rebel targets in Eastern Ghouta, killing about ten U.S. personnel (military instructors) as well as other Western countries' instructors stationed in the rebel stronghold, despite the lack of known U.S. military presence in the region; the strikes were presented as retaliation for the U.S. attack at Khasham. A short-term deployment of two Su-57s to Syria was officially confirmed by the Russian defence minister Sergey Shoygu on 1 March 2018. Earlier, Komsomolskaya Pravda military correspondent was cited as saying that according to his information, the Su-57s had done "excellent" work carrying out their mission in Eastern Ghouta. On 12 April 2018, outgoing U.S. Central Intelligence Agency director Mike Pompeo, during his Senate hearing for the position of the United States Secretary of State, commented, "This administration announced a nuclear posture review that has put Russia on notice that we are going to recapitalize our deterrent force. In Syria, now, a handful of weeks ago the Russians met their match. A couple hundred Russians were killed." The death of the Russian investigative journalist Maksim Borodin, who wrote about the deaths of mercenaries in Syria in mid-April 2018, was linked by the media to his publications about Wagner's casualties in the clash at Khasham. ==Further incidents in the area==

On 10 February 2018, a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone destroyed a T-72 tank of pro-government forces in an airstrike near the Al Tabiyeh gas field. The tank itself was not firing on the SDF and the coalition, but other elements in the formation were. On 2 March 2018, at least two pro-government fighters were reportedly killed by coalition air raids near Khasham. On 27 March 2018, U.S. officials, including U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis, said a contingent of pro-Syrian government forces and Russian "mercenaries" had again similarly amassed near coalition forces in Deir ez-Zor the week prior, but the potential confrontation was defused after the U.S. military contacted Russian officers. Mattis believed the forces were under Russian control, as the pro-government troops pulled back after U.S. forces spoke with their Russian counterparts. On 29 April 2018, pro-government forces launched an assault against four SDF villages on the Euphrates, initially capturing them. However, the SDF later retook the villages, with local sources claiming coalition aircraft bombed pro-government positions in response. On 11 May 2018, the coalition stated that SDF units responded to artillery fire from an unknown source on the outskirts of Deir ez-Zor; the SDF returned fire, leading to the destruction of one enemy artillery piece. No casualties were reported on either side of the engagement. The coalition discussed the development with Russian counterparts via the established deconfliction line. ==See also==