Are we talking or are we fighting - US General ask Russian counterpart in Syria today.

Source: The Telegraph

The US and Russia came close to engaging in a direct military confrontation in Syria after the Russians threatened an American special forces base at the height of the civil war, it can be revealed.

US commanders threatened to respond with military force after the Russians ordered American special forces to leave their base “or face destruction”.

After the special forces had dispersed into the Syrian desert as a precautionary measure, General Stephen Townsend, the commander of the US-led coalition’s Combined Joint Task Force, contacted his Russian opposite number to send him an ultimatum: “Are we talking or are we fighting.”

After a brief pause, during which the Russians weighed up their options, they replied: “We are talking.” The response helped to defuse a major crisis between US and Russian forces operating in Syria during the civil war, which could easily have escalated into a major confrontation between Moscow and Washington.

When the call with the Russians ended with them backing down, a delighted Gen Townsend informed his coalition colleagues: “My Russian friend just blinked.”

Details of the tense stand-off, which took place at the US al-Tanf military base on the Syrian border with Jordan in May 2017, are revealed in Assad: The Triumph of Tyranny by author Con Coughlin, who also writes for The Telegraph.

The incident took place at the height of the Syrian conflict when Russian and US forces were both operating in the country in pursuit of differing agendas.

According to Gen Townsend, the potentially calamitous stand-off between US and Russian forces took place when Gen Surovikin was away on leave, and his replacement failed to observe the strict deconfliction protocols agreed between the Americans and Russians to avoid a direct confrontation between the two forces.

Gen Townsend was adamant that the US forces should not capitulate to any form of Russian intimidation. “The Russians never got away with provocative action against the US while we were operating in Syria,” he said. “We always stood up to them when they came too close or tried to pressure us.”

US forces were involved in direct military action against the Russians in February 2018 when a contingent of mercenaries fighting with the Wagner Group attacked an outpost run by Syrian opposition forces and US special forces at the Syrian border city of Deir al-Zour. Between 200 and 300 Wagner mercenaries were reported to have been killed in the clash.

US coalition commanders believe that the Russian military’s performance in Syria played a significant factor in the series of humiliating defeats it suffered in Ukraine because in the Syrian conflict they were operating against ill-equipped militias, while in Ukraine they found themselves fighting against a well-prepared military force supplied with high-quality Western weaponry.

“The Russian military learned all the wrong lessons from its intervention in Syria,” said a senior British officer who served in the US-led coalition. “They assumed they could resort to the same tactics they used in Syria to achieve their goals in Ukraine. This led them to completely misjudge the Ukrainians’ ability to defend their country.”