Spetsnaz, Russian Mercenaries, and American Commandoes in Syria (2018) by Miguel A. Faria, MD

In the early morning hours of April 7, 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered, and the American military launched, a devastating missile strike on a Syrian air base. The strike was in retaliation for the Syrian chemical attack on a rebel-held town in northwestern Syria a few days before in which 80 Syrians, including dozens of women and children, had been killed. The BBC reported the U.S. missile launch:

Fifty-nine Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from two US Navy ships in the Mediterranean. At least six people are reported to have been killed. It is the first direct US military action against forces commanded by Syria’s president. The Kremlin, which backs Bashar al-Assad, has condemned the strike.

Russian Aspirations in the Middle East

Previously, President Trump and President Putin had tried to collaborate in Syria, at least against the areas held by the terrorist ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). Putin reacted cautiously to the American unilateral action, which was devastating for his protégé and main ally in the region, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. China released a neutral message calling for restraint. The United Kingdom, Japan, and NATO supported the American action, while Iran, Syria, and Russia condemned it. In the Middle East, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey strongly supported the American missile strike. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated: “President Trump sent a strong and clear message today that the use and spread of chemical weapons will not be tolerated. Israel fully supports President Trump’s decision and hopes that this message of resolve in the face of the Assad regime’s horrific actions will resonate not only in Damascus, but in Tehran, Pyongyang and elsewhere.”

Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan, who had been a strong opponent of the Assad regime and had denounced the Syrian chemical attack a few days earlier, also supported the American action as “strongly positive” and his foreign ministry spokesman stated that “Turkey would fully support steps that would ensure accountability for the Syrian regime.”

What did these developments mean for Putin and Russia’s aspirations in the Middle East? Putin had his sights on building an eastern Mediterranean power base centered in Syria, relying on the acquiescence and assistance of his ally, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.  With the fall of the Assad regime only a few weeks ago, that possibility is very remote.

The Russian Special Forces—Spetsnaz

Spetsnaz are Russian “special forces” that were developed in the Soviet era and expanded in the new Russia and in some of the former Republics. Russian military forces assigned to special tasks have also been referred as spetsnaz.

Soviet spetsnaz forces assisted the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War, helping defeat the South Vietnamese and their American allies. They also took part in the Soviet-Afghan War of 1979–1989.

On December 27, 1979, in Operation Storm-333, spetsnaz forces stormed the Tajbik Palace in Kabul and killed Afghan president Hafizullah Amin and more than 300 guards in a savage encounter that lasted less than an hour. The conquering Soviets then installed another communist president more to their liking, Babrak Karmal, as Amin’s successor. Thereafter Russian forces, including spetsnaz troops fought side by side with their communist Afghan army allies against the Mujahideen.

The West learned about the existence, purpose, and methods of the spetsnaz from the revelations of GRU agent Viktor Suvorov, who defected to the British in 1978.

Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, spetsnaz developed celebrity status in the new Russia, captivating the imagination of the populace and participating in numerous intelligence and military operations against Russia’s neighbors, such as Georgia and Ukraine. Spetsnaz forces were directly involved in the seizure of the Crimea in 2014.

In 2015, after Russia’s conquest of the Crimea and eastern Ukraine, Putin redirected spetsnaz forces to the Syrian civil war. Putin sent ground forces and used the Russian Aerospace Forces to support the flagging authoritarian regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Air strikes followed that were supposedly directed to support the Syrian army in their war against Islamic State (IS) forces, but those claims were disputed. In fact, Russian forces attacked other Syrian rebels, such as the Free Syrian Army militias, that were also fighting IS but were being assisted by the West and the United States.

Spetsnaz performed sniper missions, sabotage, and reconnaissance against all of Assad’s enemies, andsupported the Iranian Quds Force under General Qasem Soleimani on the ground. The Quds Force is one of the five branches of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and its “elite clandestine wing.” The IRGC-QF is “responsible for conducting covert lethal activities outside of Iran, including asymmetric and terrorist operations…IRGC-QF uses its intelligence and military capabilities to support not only its own terrorist operations but also those of its partners and proxies.” The Quds Force was very active in the Syrian civil war and has been active in other parts of the Middle East as well. One of the Quds Force’s missions reportedly was to gain Iran access to the Mediterranean Sea, and this necessity was one reason for Iran’s assistance to Syria and Russia in this civil war contest. Soleimani’s involvement in Middle East clandestine military activities and terrorism cost him his life. He was targeted in an American drone attack in Iraq on the orders of U.S. President Donald Trump in January 2020 and killed.

Along with Russian Aerospace Forces, spetsnaz troopswere instrumental in pushing back rebels, who until that point were gaining the upper hand in the fight against the Syrian government forces that maintained President Assad in power.

The Wagner Group, referred to as a “private military company” (PMC), was also reported operating in Syria to help prop up Assad. Sources at the FSB and the Russian Defense Ministry admitted, unofficially, that the Wagner Group was supervised by intelligence and military GRU officials and did remarkably well in Syria, propping up the Assad regime.

Russian Mercenaries Clash With American Commandos

But in February 2018, a much-feared clash, which both sides had tried to avoid, took place between Free Syrian Army forces and American commandos on one side and Syrian government forces and Russian mercenaries on the other.The clash turned out to be one of the bloodiest battles American forces had participated in since deployment to the Middle East to fight the militant Islamic State.The American force consisted of Delta Force soldiers, Green Berets, Marines, and Rangers from the Joint Special Operations Command, which was operating alongside friendly Arab and Kurdish rebels next to a Conoco oil field outpost near Deir al-Zour by the Euphrates in eastern Syria. The New York Times reported:

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. 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.

Despite American efforts to communicate with the hostile advancing force, Russian and Syrian forces continued the attack and refused to stop the armored advance and artillery bombardment of the American position. At this point, the tiny American force of 40 commandos called for air support. The New York Times reported:

American warplanes arrived in waves, including Reaper drones, F-22 stealth fighter jets, F-15E Strike Fighters, B-52 bombers, AC-130 gunships and AH-64 Apache helicopters. For the next three hours, American officials said, scores of strikes pummeled enemy troops, tanks, and other vehicles. Marine rocket artillery was fired from the ground.

The Russian mercenaries and their allies suffered heavy losses:

In the end, 200 to 300 of the attacking fighters were killed. The others retreated under merciless airstrikes from the United States, returning later to retrieve their battlefield dead. None of the Americans at the small outpost in eastern Syria—about 40 by the end of the firefight—were harmed.]

According to American intelligence officials, the Russian mercenaries were likely part of the Wagner Group, the paramilitary company that “the Kremlin often used to carry out objectives that officials do not want to be connected to the Russian government.” The Wagner group has been significantly downgraded after their leader, the oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, staged an aborted coup against Putin in 2023.

This article is excerpted from Dr. Faria’s book, Stalin, Mao, Communism, and the 21st Century Aftermath in Russia and China (2024).

Dr. Miguel A. Faria is Associate Editor in Chief in neuropsychiatry; and socioeconomics, politics, and world affairs of Surgical Neurology International (SNI). He is the author of numerous books, the most recent, Cuba’s Eternal Revolution through the Prism of Insurgency, Socialism, and Espionage (July 2023); Stalin, Mao, Communism, and the 21st Century Aftermath in Russia and China (2024); and Contrasting Ideals and Ends in the American and French Revolutions (in press)— the last four books by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K.

Copyright ©2025 HaciendaPublishing.com