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khallow [soylentnews.org] writes:

The New York Times reports [nytimes.com] that Syrian and Russian sources have acknowledged that a US air strike from more than a week ago may have killed a number of Russian nationals involved in an attack on oil fields and infrastructure controlled by a US ally:

Four Russian nationals, and perhaps dozens more, were killed in fighting between pro-government forces in eastern Syria and members of the United States-led coalition fighting the Islamic State, according to Russian and Syrian officials.

A Syrian military officer said that about 100 Syrian soldiers had been killed in the fighting on Feb. 7 and 8, but news about Russian casualties has dribbled out only slowly, through Russian news organizations and social media.

[...]

The attack occurred in the vicinity of Deir al-Zour, a strategic, oil-rich territory that is coveted by the Syrians. Most of the fatalities were attributed to an American airstrike on enemy columns that was called in by American-backed Kurdish soldiers who believed they were under attack.

[...]

The Kremlin — seeking to play down its involvement in the fighting in Syria and seemingly hoping to avoid escalating tensions with the United States — has sidestepped questions about the episode, even as it faces rare criticism at home over its failure to acknowledge the deaths of Russians in Syria.

It has stressed repeatedly since last Wednesday that no members of the Russian armed forces were killed, and that any Russians fighting alongside the Syrians were mercenaries.

In another story on the air strikes, CNN speculates [cnn.com] tenuously that this was a private attempt to seize oil fields for profit, linking the Russian paramilitary organization to an alleged contract between Russian oligarch, Yevgeny Prigozhin [wikipedia.org] and the Syrian government.

But why would Wagner take such a risk to take control of the oil field?

Wagner is led by Dmitry Utkin, a former colonel in the Russian special forces who is under US sanctions for assisting pro-Russian separatists in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Utkin was once head of security for a Russian oligarch called Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has close ties to the Kremlin.

[...]

Last month, the US Treasury Department designated another Russian company, Evro Polis, "for being owned or controlled by Yevgeny Prigozhin."

CNN has seen a copy of a contract between Evro Polis, and the Syrian regime, under which Evro Polis gets 25% of oil revenues from fields that are recovered from rebel control.

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