![]() Scores of strikes pummeled the mercenaries, but they did not waver. 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. This was the Wagner Group, a private military company based in Russia, and like many high-end mercenaries today, they were covert and lethal. These were not the cartoonish rabble depicted by Hollywood and Western pundits. No one expected an enemy armored assault.Īttacking them were 500 mercenaries, hired by Russia, who possessed artillery, armored personnel carriers, and T-72 main battle tanks. Their collective mission was to defend the Conoco facility, alongside Kurdish and Arab forces. ![]() Roughly 20 miles away, a team of Green Berets and a platoon of Marines stared at their computer screens, watching the drone feeds of the battle. They were in danger of being overrun.Ī team of about 30 special operations forces was pinned down at a Conoco gas plant. They returned fire, but it was not enough to repulse the tanks. ![]() After the barrage, a column of Russian tanks advanced on their positions, firing their 125-millimeter turret guns at soldiers. Gamal Abdel Nasser died of a heart attack in 1970 his successor, Anwar Sadat, eventually sought peace with Israel, signing an historic treaty in 1979 he was assassinated by an Egyptian officer in 1981.The opening salvo of artillery was so intense that American troops took cover in foxholes for protection.Relations with Israel remained hostile - there was an unsuccessful attempt to take back the Golan Heights in the 1973 Middle East war, and Assad continued to refuse any peace deal which did not include the return of Syrian territory Hafez al-Assad took power in a 1970 coup and was elected Syrian president in a referendum a year later he ruled the country until he died in 2000.After years of secret talks, Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994. King Hussein of Jordan ordered the expulsion of PLO forces from Jordan in 1970 and rejected calls by Egypt and Syria to join their war against Israel in 1973. ![]() ![]()
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