200 Russian fighters killed by US in Syria

More than 200 private Russian military contractors were killed by US forces in Syria last week, in what could amount to the deadliest clash between citizens of the two countries since the Cold War.

The mercenaries, mostly Russians fighting on behalf of the Syrian president, Bashar Al Assad, lost their lives in a failed attack on a base held by US and US-backed forces in the oil-rich Deir Ezzor region.

What began as a peaceful uprising seven years ago has morphed into a violent proxy war involving Islamic extremists, stateless Kurds and regional powers Iran, Turkey and now Israel.

Russia’s military said it had nothing to do with the attack and the US military accepted that claim. Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis called the whole thing perplexing, but provided no further details, according to Bloomberg.

“Coalition officials were in regular communication with Russian counterparts before, during and after the thwarted, unprovoked attack,” said Col Thomas F Veale, a US military spokesman. “Russian officials assured coalition officials

they would not engage coalition forces in the vicinity.”

The offensive began on February 7, Col Veale said. No fatality was reported on the coalition side and “enemy vehicles and personnel who turned around and headed back west were not targeted”.

The death toll, already about five times official losses suffered by Russia’s military since it entered the war in 2015, is still rising, according to one mercenary commander.

Grigory Yavlinsky, a Russian opposition politician, called on authorities to come clean.

“If there have been mass deaths of Russian citizens in Syria, then the relevant authorities ... have a duty to inform the country about this and decide who bears responsibility,” he said on Twitter.

Violence in Syria intensified last week, with the UN saying on Monday that the suffering of civilians has worsened since it called for a ceasefire.