Home › World › What happened at Khasham on 8 February 2018
What happened at Khasham on 8 February 2018
Summary
A retrospective on a clash in Deir ez-Zor Governorate between pro-government forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces, and the US strikes around it.
What happened near Khasham on 8 February 2018, and why did it draw in Russian contractors and United States airpower? The battle took place in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate, where a force of five hundred Syrian pro-government troops, backed by tanks and artillery, launched a ground assault on a local headquarters of the Syrian Democratic Forces.
More than one hundred Syrian government fighters were killed, among them Russian private military contractors of the Wagner Group. The scale of the losses made the clash a notable moment in the Syrian Civil War.
The US role
United States Central Command said on 7 February 2018 that it had killed more than 100 pro-government troops in what it called "self-defense" strikes. It placed them 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) east of the Euphrates de-confliction line, which was reportedly agreed with Russia.
The line mattered because the strikes were reported as falling on the eastern side of it. The presence of Wagner Group contractors among the dead put Russian private fighters on the losing end of the engagement, in the same battle as the American strikes.
