How Russian mercenaries got slaughtered by a band of US special ops troops

Faced by ten Russian T-72 tanks and 500 troops mostly from Russia's Wagner Group of mercenaries, the leader of 50 US special operations troops spoke into his mic:"We're going to stay and fight." Despite the overwhelming odds, there followed the biggest land battle between American and Russian-led forces anyone could remember and it ended with 350 enemy dead, nine destroyed tanks - and no US casualties. For the first time three members of the US special operations unit involved have spoken out about the four-hour confrontation with the Russian mercenaries which took place in eastern Syria on February 7, 2018. Ever since the US military had deployed to Syria in September, 2014, to fight the Islamic State (Isis), there had always been fears that at some point there could be direct conflict with Russian forces who were backing the Syrian regime. The battle in February, 2018, was the deadliest confrontation of all. The US special operations commandos who spoke to The War Horse, a US military news organisation, admitted it was an experience they had never imagined after being deployed to Syria. "It looked like New York City on New Year's Eve," a sergeant identified only as Chauncey, said. He led a quick reaction force of Green Berets and Marines to a burnt-out Conoco natural gas refinery which the Russian-led group was threatening to overrun. When the shoot-out began, officials in Washington rang Moscow to call off the fight. But Moscow denied there were Russians involved. Equipped only with armoured trucks and heavy machineguns, the quick reaction force took on the Russian tanks as they slowly approached to within a mile of their position and began firing 125mm shells. "This is what we get paid for," Chauncey said. "Let's open up and let 'em know we're here," he told his comrades. The Russian tank crews were thankfully inaccurate. The shells missed their targets. But Chauncey saw his unit's machinegun rounds "sparking" off the tanks. "The Russians were not hitting anything," Josh, another commando, said. One of the truck-mounted machineguns ran out of ammunition at a crucial moment. Josh had to climb out onto the roof to reload two belts of ammunition as artillery and tank shells burst around him. The shockwave hit him in the chest. The US troops had been appealing for airstrikes but it wasn't until all the Russian tanks were lined up within range that suddenly two pairs of Apache attack helicopters arrived overhead and blasted nine of the tanks. "They just destroyed everything," Chauncey said. The Russians were forced to withdraw. An intercepted Wagner Group radio message summed it up. "To make it short we had our arses kicked."