![]() ![]() The prospect of Russian military forces and American troops colliding has long been feared as the Cold War adversaries take opposing sides in Syria’s seven-year civil war.Īt worst, officials and experts have said, it could plunge both countries into bloody conflict. ![]() In interviews, United States military officials said they had watched - with dread - hundreds of approaching rival troops, vehicles and artillery pieces in the week leading up to the attack. The firefight was described by the Pentagon as an act of self-defense against a unit of pro-Syrian government forces. They provide the Pentagon’s first public on-the-ground accounting of one of the single bloodiest battles the American military has faced in Syria since deploying to fight the Islamic State. 7 firefight were gleaned from interviews and documents newly obtained by The New York Times. None of the Americans at the small outpost in eastern Syria - about 40 by the end of the firefight - were harmed. The others retreated under merciless airstrikes from the United States, returning later to retrieve their battlefield dead. ![]() ![]() In the end, 200 to 300 of the attacking fighters were killed. It was the opening salvo in a nearly four-hour assault in February by around 500 pro-Syrian government forces - including Russian mercenaries - that threatened to inflame already-simmering tensions between Washington and Moscow. WASHINGTON - The artillery barrage was so intense that the American commandos dived into foxholes for protection, emerging covered in flying dirt and debris to fire back at a column of tanks advancing under the heavy shelling. ![]()
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