The Battle of Khasham, also known as the Battle of Conoco Fields, was a military engagement of the Syrian civil war fought on 7 February 2018 near the towns of Khasham and Al Tabiyeh in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate, Syria. The Operation Inherent Resolve coalition delivered air and artillery strikes on Syrian Armed Forces and pro-government militias after they reportedly engaged a U.S. military and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) position in the region.
The US Central Command alleged that pro-government forces had "initiated an unprovoked attack against well-established Syrian Democratic Forces headquarters" in the area, while coalition service members were "co-located with SDF partners during the attack 8 kilometers (5 mi) east of the agreed-upon Euphrates River de-confliction line". The Russian Ministry of Defence's statement, released on 8 February 2018, referred to the incident at the village of Salihiyah (located south of the SDF-held town of Abu Hamam in the Abu Kamal District) and said that it was caused by reconnaissance actions of Syrian militias that had not been cleared with the Russian operations command; the statement stressed that there were no Russian service members in the "designated district of the Deir ez-Zor province of Syria".
The number of pro-Syrian government troops—particularly the number of Russian mercenaries—has been the subject of debate. Shortly after the fighting, the American officials estimated that around 100 Syrian troops had been killed in the fighting, with some reports of Russian mercenaries among the dead. As unconfirmed accounts of casualties among Russian Wagner Group mercenaries in the strike emerged, the incident was billed by media as "the first deadly clash between citizens of Russia and the United States since the Cold War".
Reporting by Der Spiegel and the official Russian position hold that U.S. troops repelling a Syrian attack "happened to kill 20–30 Russians", while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) believed there were some Russian casualties caused by a nearby booby-trap unrelated to the assault. However, other news organizations and American official estimates ranged up to a "couple of hundred" Russians killed. The Ukrainian Security Service of Ukraine identified 65 Russians as killed through open-source intelligence. A report published by the University of Southern Denmark in 2019 which referred to claims made by Der Spiegel's report, official Russian and American statements, and other sources estimated "that 65–200 Russians (of which a few may have been Russian special operators assisting or leading the Wagnerites) died as a result of the fighting, some in the field, and some in hospital beds in Syria and Russia".
Background
In September 2014, the United States began to undertake efforts to establish a global coalition with the declared aim of countering the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Since September 2014, the U.S. had conducted military operations in Syria, primarily against ISIL forces as part of Operation Inherent Resolve. The primary U.S.-backed force in the northeastern part of Syria is the Syrian Democratic Forces, a group composed predominantly of Kurdish and Arab militiamen. In 2017, backed by U.S. forces, the SDF captured Raqqa from the Islamic State and then advanced to the Euphrates River, where a deconfliction line was established by the governments of the United States and Russia.
On several occasions, U.S. forces struck Syrian pro-government units operating in the area. In November 2017, the U.S. government made it known that they were expanding their goals in Syria beyond routing ISIL forces, to pressure the Syrian government to make concessions at the Geneva talks. This intent was, in mid-January 2018, clearly broadcast by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who said the Trump administration would maintain an open-ended military presence in Syria to counter Iranian influence and ensure the departure of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Russia had been conducting air military operations in Syria in support of the Syrian government since 30 September 2015. Furthermore, Russian private military contractors ("volunteers"), notably those associated with the Wagner Group, had been engaged in ground operations throughout that time, although their presence was never officially confirmed by the Russian government.
In February 2018, Lt. Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, Commander of U.S. Air Forces Central Command, talked about the circumstances before the attack: "The coalition observed a slow buildup of personnel and equipment the previous week, and we reminded Russian officials of the SDF and coalition presence via the telephone deconfliction line. This was well in advance of the enemy forces' attack. I know you're going to ask, so I'm going to be clear that I will not speculate on the composition of this force or whose control they were under." Harrigian presented the U.S. strike as demonstration of the coalition's readiness "to prevent a resurgence of ISIS".
On 22 February 2018, The Washington Post cited unnamed sources in U.S. intelligence as alleging that the communications intercepted days before and after the incident between Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was believed to finance Wagner, and senior Syrian officials, such as Mansour Fadlallah Azzam, as well as Kremlin officials, suggested that Prigozhin had "secured permission" from an unspecified Russian minister to go ahead with a "fast and strong" move in early February and was awaiting approval from the Syrian government.
A few days before, Prigozhin had been indicted by the grand jury for the District of Columbia on charges related to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections. A publication by the Ukraine-based anti-Kremlin InformNapalm alleged the operation had been cleared with the Russian military command by Sergey Kim, the chief of Wagner's operations department and a former Russian Naval Infantry officer.
Incident and casualties
U.S. version
According to the U.S. military's official statement, around 10 p.m. local time on the night of 7 February 2018, a force of 500 pro-government fighters consisting of local militiamen, Syrian Army regulars, Shia militants from Liwa Fatemiyoun and Liwa Zainebiyoun, and reportedly Russian private military contractors, launched an assault on an SDF headquarters near Khasham. Supported by T-72 and T-55 tanks, the pro-government troops first shelled the SDF base with artillery and mortars in a "coordinated attack". Around 20–30 shells landed within 500 meters (1,600 ft) of the headquarters.
According to the U.S. military, the presence of U.S. special operations personnel in the targeted base elicited a response by coalition aircraft, including AC-130 gunships, F-22 Raptor and F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets, MQ-9 Reaper unmanned combat aerial vehicles, AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, and B-52 bombers. Nearby American artillery batteries, including an M142 HIMARS, shelled Syrian forces as well. According to sources in Wagner, cited by news media as well as the Department of Defense, U.S. forces were in constant contact with the official Russian liaison officer posted in Deir ez-Zor throughout the engagement, and only opened fire after they had received assurances that no regular Russian troops were in action or at risk.
The clashes lasted four hours and saw more than 100 Syrian pro-government fighters killed, with one SDF fighter injured, according to the coalition. No U.S. troops were reported killed or wounded.
According to two unnamed U.S. defense officials cited by CNN on 8 February, the U.S. military had assessed that Russian contractors had been involved, with one saying some of the contractors had been killed in the airstrikes. A Kurdish militia commander and an ex-Russian officer also claimed Russian contractors were present and suffered casualties during the strikes. During the two weeks following the incident, U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis and other U.S. military officials repeatedly stated that American military commanders were in contact with their official Russian counterparts prior to, during, and after the clash, and that the U.S military was told by their Russian counterparts that there were no Russians in the paramilitary formation.
On 13 February 2018, unclassified footage depicting the coalition's targeted airstrikes on a pro-government T-72 tank position and a reported Russian contractor artillery position in the Khasham area was released by the Department of Defense.
Syrian government version
In an official statement that was released by the "ISIS Hunters" unit of the Syrian Armed Forces, they had received intelligence that ISIL forces were moving towards Khasham and government forces decided to move from the Euphrates so to cut off ISIL's line of attack. At this point, armed groups were spotted east of Khasham, in SDF-held territory, which then attacked the government's troops. The groups were quickly pushed back. The military claimed that, according to intercepted radio traffic, the groups were partly ISIL and partly Kurds, and retreated towards the Conoco factory. At this point, pro-government units were hit by airstrikes. According to Syrian military sources, some 55 pro-government fighters were killed, including around 10 Russian fighters.
Der Spiegel and SOHR version
Der Spiegel version
Three weeks after the incident, Germany's Der Spiegel published their own investigative report based on evidence gleaned from multiple first-hand sources (participants and witnesses) in the area. According to this report, pro-Syrian government forces spent a week prior to the event gathering in the Deir ez-Zor Airport, which is located to the west of the Euphrates and south of Deir ez-Zor, the capital city of Deir ez-Zor Governorate.
In the vicinity of this city, the Euphrates river runs roughly from the northwest to the southeast, flowing into neighboring Iraq, and splits the city in two. The Syrian government controlled all areas west of the river, including the great majority of Deir ez-Zor, and a salient on the river's east bank across from the city. The SDF controlled almost all other territory east of the river, excluding the salient and the islands in the river.
The Iranian-backed forces that had gathered consisted of members of the Syrian Army's elite 4th Armoured Division, members of the militias of the local Bekara and Albo Hamad Arab tribes, and members of the Iranian-controlled Fatemiyoun and Zainebiyoun brigades. Contrary to what was widely reported at the time, Der Spiegel later reported that according to witnesses, no Russian mercenaries were part of this formation. At the time, Russia and the United States had an agreement that no more than 400 pro-Syrian government fighters could be in the Syrian-government controlled salient on the river's east bank.
As with the deconfliction line, the Syrian government itself never officially agreed to this limit but due to its dependence on Russia, the Syrian Army had nevertheless been, by and large de facto adhering to both; the Iranian government also never joined either of these two bilateral U.S.–Russian agreements. Compared to its influence over the Syrian government, the Russian government had significantly less influence over Iran's government, military, and proxies in Syria, which constituted a large portion of pro-Syrian government ground forces in both Deir ez-Zor and throughout Syria.
The Syrian government's dependence on these ground forces for territorial control, a consequence of severe manpower shortages in the Syrian military, gave Iran significant influence over it, to the extent that Russia and Iran had to increasingly compete for control and influence over the Syria government. Der Spiegel's report did not indicate whether this formation was under Iranian or Syrian command or what attempt, if any, Russia made to force the Syrian and Iranian governments to comply with these U.S.–Russian agreements.
At around 5 a.m. on 7 February 2018, around 250 of these fighters attempted to cross the Euphrates over a military pontoon bridge located to the southeast of both the Deir ez-Zor Airport and the SDF base near Khasham. Warning shots fired by U.S. military forces in the area stopped this morning advance, and the fighters withdrew back to the west of the Euphrates; these warning shots did not result in any injuries. According to Der Spiegel, witnesses said that no Russian mercenaries were part of this group.
Later that same day, under the cover of darkness, about twice as many pro-Syrian government fighters successfully crossed a different bridge located northeast of Deir ez-Zor Airport. They arrived at the village of Marrot, which is northwest of both Khasham and the nearby SDF base. At around 10 p.m. that night, these fighters began to advance southeast toward Khasham. Concurrently, another group of Syrian tribal militia and Shia fighters began to advance north toward Khasham from Tabiyet Jazira, a Syrian government-controlled town east of the Euphrates that is significantly closer to Khasham (and the nearby the SDF base) than Marrot.
U.S. military forces once again opened fire, but this time with the intention of inflicting casualties. According to Der Spiegel's report, no Russians were in either formation, though there was a small contingent of Russian private military contractors (PMCs) stationed in Tabiyeh who were not participating in the fighting. Notwithstanding that, between 10 and 20 of the Russians were killed in the U.S. strikes, while most of the formations' deaths were reportedly among the servicemen of the 4th Armoured Division of the Syrian Army. Further strikes were carried out on the mornings of 8 and 9 February on tribal militia members that had come to retrieve dead bodies.
SOHR version
Similarly, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 68 pro-government fighters were killed during the day in the area, including 45 who died in the coalition airstrikes, with most being Syrians. The remaining 23 pro-government personnel, including 15 Russians PMCs, were not killed in the airstrikes, but instead caught in a booby-trapped explosion at an arms depot at Tabiyet Jazira. The PMCs were accompanying government forces as they advanced towards the SDF-held oil and gas fields.