Leaked audio transcripts show the Russians were suitably impressed with US capabilities.
http://www.businessinsider.com/russi...-forces-2018-2
Leaked audio transcripts show the Russians were suitably impressed with US capabilities.
http://www.businessinsider.com/russi...-forces-2018-2
Originally Posted by 1911guy
Kosovo Force - Wikipedia says 621 US troops.
NATO KFOR - MNBG EastTurks. Great.Multinational Battle Group-East (MNBG-E) is a NATO command, with headquarters at Camp "Bondsteel”, located near Ferizaj in the south eastern part of Kosovo. Camp "Bondsteel” is the main base of the United States Army under KFOR command in Kosovo.
...The unit is commanded by a US Officer and is comprised of US troops from 39th Brigade Combat Team, Arkansas Army National Guard with troops from Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Turkey.
NATO KFOR - JRD South
We now return you to killing GodlessJoint Regional Detachment–South (JRD-S) supports COMKFOR’s situational awareness and communication campaign in JRD-S AOR by gathering information and liaising with local authorities, IOs and NGOs. JRD-S is a multinational unit with contingents coming from five different contributing nations: Austria, Poland, Switzerland, Turkey and USA. The unit is commanded by a Turkish Officer and is based in Prizren.commiesmercenaries who have nothing whatsoever to do with the Russian government or policy.
Recovering Gun Store Commando. My Blog: The Clue Meter
“It doesn’t matter what the problem is, the solution is always for us to give the government more money and power, while we eat less meat.”
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More: Russia's Mercenary Debacle in Syria | Foreign Affairs
Recovering Gun Store Commando. My Blog: The Clue Meter
“It doesn’t matter what the problem is, the solution is always for us to give the government more money and power, while we eat less meat.”
Glenn Reynolds
Glad some of our batteries and gunships had a good dignified bout of fisticuffs without a scratch.
Semper Gumby, Always Flexible
I'm not on FB, but I've seen this on a couple of sites:
From Ringos facebook
Soooo...
Further reporting, such as it is, on the Dair Ezzor Turkey Shoot.
1. Sov... err... Russians built a bridge over the Euphrates which was the designated 'deconfliction line'. Why? Reasons. 'Commite of Nations' or something.
2. 'Hybrid' force of mixed Russian contractors including multiple non-ethnic Russians (Serbs, Kossack, other non Slavics) as well as local Syrian Army
'commandos' attacked across temporary bridge. The 'Russian' side were 'Blackwater' equivalent mercenaries from a company generally called 'Wagner'
which is the nom de plume of the boss. (Like if you called Blackwater 'Prince'.)
3. Unit was partially mechanized, battalion strength. (One thing everyone agrees upon is 'about 600-700 personnel.') Had some towed artillery as well
as 't-55 and T-72 MBT as well as armored personnel carriers.' (Type unknown.) Full on 'we're taking that position and you're not stopping us' full court press.
4. Unit crossed bridge, arty deployed.
5. Arty opened fire while most of unit was still in approach column formation. (Normal) One portion moved to flanking positions.
5A. Minute the arty opened fire shite GOT REAL REAL QUICK.
6. Reapers took out artillery and most of armor with Hellfire. From the few videos, pretty much before they knew what hit them. There had to be quite a few Reaper drones up or they were feeding guidance to Hellfire from Apaches (see below.)
7. F-15E Eagles came in for clean-up and to check for anti-air defenses.
8. Warthogs showed up just to go BRRRRRRT!
9. AC-130 Spectre started fricking up their day for the hell of it.
10. To add insult to injury, B-52s which, you know, just HAPPENED to be in the area, just minding our own business, just passing by from Diego Garcia which is a few thousand miles away, on our way to... somewhere... nothing to see here... decided to prove they could drop their entire load as precision guided weapons and just more or less DID A JDAM ARCLIGHT ON THEIR ASS. At that point, more or less because CENTCOM said 'Why not? ARCLIGHT is always pretty to watch...'
11. The whole thing being so over it was ridiculous, AH-64 Apaches basically did 'hostile Bomb Damage Assessment' and complained there were no targets left.
12. Oh, and then the Kurds, to just really frick with these guys, released water from a dam upstream and broke their bridge. So they had to ford back with their wounded.
13. Nobody knows how many dead and wounded. Russians are saying 'only 8 Russian citizens' but that doesn't quite cover the whole of who may have been involved. One repeated number is 200 dead (remember, mixed Syrians, Russians and other ethnics) as well as pretty much the rest of the force wounded. (Not to mention pretty thoroughly demoralized.) One Kurd wounded. Probably fell off a stool laughing to tell truth.
14. Military hospitals in Russia are reliably reported 'overflowing.'
This was much less a 'battle' than a message. Towards the end we had to just be pounding ground to make sure they got it.
Messages, really.
A. Don't fricking cross that river.
B. Hey, North Korea! LOOK WHAT I CAN DO!
C. Hey, Putin, about Donbas... This is what we can do to your 'freedom fighters' (AKA: mercenaries) at any time.
D. To everyone in general: You need to remember who's boss.
Mattis is playing dumb. 'What Russians? There were Russians? Really? I'm seeing that in the media but I got no briefing on there being Russians in that column. Our bad. Sorry about that.'
Then there's the fact that the strike was NOT approved by the President.
Because he gave CENTOM the approval on things like that.
And CENTCOM handled it like a BOSS.
Oh, and when the forces crossed the river the Russians were informed and informed that we intended to take 'self-defense' actions.
So they can't even say they weren't warned.
I'm not sure we warned them we'd be using BUFF.
This is more the sort of thing I'd expect in late summer.
'Shit! We haven't expended our budget! Are there any Russians we can frick up very badly with all these unexpended munitions?'
Last thought: It had to be shitty being on the receiving end of that.
A team of DER SPIEGEL journalists spent two weeks interviewing both witnesses to, and participants in, the battle. The team also spoke to a staff member at the only hospital in Deir ez-Zor as well as an employee of the local military airport in an attempt to get a clear picture of exactly what took place during the three-day battle.
The accounts largely corroborate each other and the image of events that emerges is one that contradicts what has been reported in the Russian and international media.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/...a-1196074.html
That web site yells at me in German.
Recovering Gun Store Commando. My Blog: The Clue Meter
“It doesn’t matter what the problem is, the solution is always for us to give the government more money and power, while we eat less meat.”
Glenn Reynolds
They're saying NEIN to your ad blocker.
Semper Gumby, Always Flexible
That explains it...
There's nothing civil about this war.
Recovering Gun Store Commando. My Blog: The Clue Meter
“It doesn’t matter what the problem is, the solution is always for us to give the government more money and power, while we eat less meat.”
Glenn Reynolds
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