Why US Troops Fought Wagner Mercenaries in Syria

What happened when a force of Wagner mercenaries faced off against elite US special forces operators in a proxy war in Syria in February 2018? What geopolitical concerns brought each side there in the first place? This event called the battle of conoco fields marks the first time Americans and Russians met in ground combat since an American Expeditionary Force was sent to Siberia during the 1917 Russian Civil War. We finally were able to observe how old Soviet horde tactics fared against modern U.S. tactics and weapon systems - and the results were surprising.

Written by: Chris Cappy and Patrick Griffin
Edited by: Michael Michaelides

To set the stage, In November 2015, the Obama administration first authorized the deployment of U.S. special forces inside Syria where a civil war had been raging since 2011. The goal was twofold to the publicly stated task of assisting local rebels in their battle against the terrorist organization ISIL and the less official goal of preventing Iran from having a clear route to smuggle weapons into Iraq while also protecting the oil field development. If the Iranian forces inside Syria were allowed to successfully take the town of al-Tanf, there would be a direct supply route link between Iran's capital of Tehran, Iraq’s capital of Baghdad and Syria’s capital of Damascus. US soldiers had a side quest mission to prevent this.

Only two months prior in September 2015 the Russian military intervened in Syria on the opposite side supporting the Assad Regime. Russia couldn’t afford to lose another ally in the middle east and preventing collapse would increase their influence in the region. Wagner had just been established one year prior in 2014 and an estimated 5,000 Wagner soldiers were sent to train, advise and coordinate Syrian forces. This is a job similar to what the US special forces are tasked with. At this point the Syrian government was widely perceived to be on a collision course for imminent collapse and unacceptable outcome for Russia.

In 2018, U.S. supported Kurdish and Arab fighters operating under the “Syrian Democratic Forces” (SDF) in the north eastern Syrian province of Deir el-Zour. The US controlled the territory east along the Euphrates river. Meanwhile, Russian Wagner Mercenaries, and Bashar al Asad’s Syrian forces supplemented with Iranian-armed militia groups, patrolled the west banks of the river. Life in this area is heavily concentrated along the river. Travel just a couple hundred meters away from either side of its banks and the terrain becomes an endless wasteland of sand.

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Task & Purpose is a military news and culture oriented channel. We want to foster discussion about the defense industry.

[chubulu]

This incident was one of the cases where Prigozhin felt he was let down by rival generals/senior leaders at ministry of defense. When US called Moscow to inquire about the approaching Wagner convoy Russia literally disowned the convoy and that led for US Air Force to play video game style attack on them.

[MrAsullivan]

Its not that the US couldnt have dealt with the SAM sites, especially having the F22 there. Its that the US knew the SAM sites belonged to Russia proper and didnt want to destroy them. Once they were turned off, then the US had a field day

[fartking]

Americans and Russians also battled during the Korean war. Some of the Mig fighter pilots were secretly soviet aviation aiding the koreans. It was a secret until it was declassified decades later. It was disscussed in documentaries.

[KilyanAustin]

This mission was the definition of "fuck around and find out"

[lardexloser]

Russia gives a medal to its soldiers for surviving the US Military. How flattering

[WilliamBrothers]

Russia didnt even give Wagner a chance to pull out before turning off those air defenses. They practically sent them to their deaths

[bobbycole]

Russia: we have no troops in the area
America: we can confirm that statement 😅

[johnkennedy]

That was absolutely brilliant insight. Thank you from Lancashire UK

[RVered]

Tragically, multiple Russian investigative journalists were assa...ehm...I mean, died totally-coincidental, unrelated, and explicable deaths following their attempts to research and publish information about this incident. Rest in Peace, Maksim Borodin, Orkhan Dzhemal, Alexander Rastorguyev, and Kirill Radchenko.

[braydenperkins]

I would wager that part of the reason they had to wait for Russian AA systems to be disabled was because they couldn’t attack the AA without starting another incident

[terrywilson]

You definitely did the best video on this incident. Your video is the only one that mentions turning off the air defense which changed everything

[lordsesshomaru]

"The battle of Conoco underscored the importance of air power and owning the night". Bravo!

[alexandertaylor]

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." - Napoleon Bonaparte.

I love that our last airstrike during this battle was from the B-52 which was completely a..."AND STAY OUT!" statement. :D

[obamasglock]

I deployed to MSS Conoco a few years after that engagement. I've heard a couple of first hand accounts. A shame you didn't mention the artillery battery that supressed the tank collumn, pinning them down while air support was coming on station. One of the few times the US has used the m777 against an actual armored formation.

[thedudemister]

That was a great breakdown. I kept thinking, "What about..." and you covered it all.

[Shoelaces]

This shows the importance of combined arms. The Sf group might have been overwhelmed alone, but US military don’t fight alone😊

[Amradar]

The most interesting thing is that by turning of the AA russia betrayed their inofficaly supported Wagner troops to maintain deniability. So that also partly explains the current tensions with Wagner.

[djgenius]

Great job dude, yourr commentary is flawless

[Recceman]

My Nephew was one of the Marines involved in this little spat. He said he only went through 1000 rounds on his 240.

[fbcpraise]

This whole incident was so under-reported, at first it seemed like a rumor. All this time I’ve wondered “why??” The best i could come up with was Wagner would get a bonus if they could embarrass the US and it couldn’t be traced to Putin. The oil field explanation makes sense, but they were crazy to think we would take this lying down.