Khasham, 2018

The battle, stage by stage

1. 7 February 2018, before dawn to midday

   Across the de-confliction line

   In late 2017 the Euphrates became the dividing line in eastern Syria: Syrian government forces and their Russian and Iranian-backed allies held the west bank around Deir ez-Zor, while the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) held the east bank, including the former Conoco gas plant, where a small team of U.S. special operations forces lived beside an SDF headquarters. U.S. commanders say they watched a slow build-up of pro-regime men and equipment for a week and reminded Russian officers of the U.S. presence over the de-confliction telephone line. Before dawn on 7 February, by Der Spiegel's account, about 250 fighters tried to cross a pontoon bridge south-east of the city; U.S. warning shots turned them back.

2. 7 February, about 3 PM to 8:30 PM

   The gathering

   At about 3 PM a pro-regime force begins moving toward the Conoco plant. By early evening, U.S. officials later told reporters, more than 500 men and 27 vehicles, including tanks and armoured personnel carriers, are in position. A larger group, reportedly about twice the size of the morning party, crosses the river after dark by another bridge and gathers near Marrat. U.S. officials say most of the attackers were Russian private contractors, believed to be from the Wagner Group, alongside Syrian troops and militias; the exact mix is disputed. At 8:30 PM three T-72 tanks come within about a mile of the plant. Twenty miles away, Green Berets and a Marine platoon load a quick reaction force.

3. About 10 PM to 10:30 PM

   Barrage on the SDF headquarters

   At about 10 PM a column of tanks and armoured vehicles comes out of a residential area, where it had gathered unseen, and turns toward the outpost. Around 10:30 PM the attack opens with tank fire, artillery, rocket launchers and mortars; the Coalition later said 20 to 30 rounds landed within 500 metres of the SDF headquarters. The Americans take cover and answer with anti-tank missiles and machine guns from behind dirt berms. U.S. officers call their Russian counterparts and urge them to stop the attack; the Russians say the force is not theirs.

4. About 10:30 PM to 11:30 PM

   The first strikes

   When the calls fail to halt it, U.S. forces fire warning shots, then strikes begin. F-22s and MQ-9 Reapers are already overhead; by one account a drone fires all its Hellfire missiles at the attackers' artillery. The quick reaction force — about 16 Green Berets and Marines in mine-resistant trucks — drives toward the plant without headlights, using thermal sights, through craters and fallen power lines. At about 11:30 PM it halts short of the plant: the shelling is too heavy to drive through. Its base and route have not been published, and its arrow here is schematic.

5. About 11:30 PM to 1 AM

   Air and artillery

   For more than three hours, Air Force combat controllers and other terminal attack controllers call in wave after wave of strikes — F-15E Strike Eagles, MQ-9s, B-52 bombers, AC-130 gunships and AH-64 Apaches — together with U.S. ground artillery and Marine rockets. One combat controller of the 24th Special Tactics Squadron, whose name has not been released, later received the Air Force Cross: his citation credits him with keeping 'an isolated force of American and coalition personnel from being overrun' while under artillery, rocket, mortar and tank fire. By the War Horse account, nine of the attackers' ten tanks and all six artillery pieces were destroyed. Some vehicles that turned back west were not targeted.

6. About 1 AM to 2 AM, 8 February

   The reaction force arrives

   With the artillery silenced, the quick reaction force reaches the plant at about 1 AM, lines its trucks up behind a berm and opens fire on fighters dug in about 1,000 metres away; by its team leader's estimate, it fires several thousand .50-calibre rounds. U.S. strength at the outpost is now about 40. At about 2 AM the attackers fall back and the Americans stop firing. No Americans are hurt; one SDF fighter is wounded. Before dawn the U.S. team watches the other side come back to collect its dead.

7. 8 February 2018 and after

   Counting the dead

   The toll has never been settled. U.S. officials first said about 100 pro-regime fighters were killed; Pentagon documents seen by the New York Times estimated 200 to 300. Der Spiegel put the dead at more than 250, mostly Syrians, Iraqis, Afghans and tribal fighters, with 10 to 20 Russians; Reuters sources spoke of about 300 men working for the Russian contractor killed or wounded; later Russian and Western tallies of Russian dead range from about 15 to over 100. Moscow said its forces were not involved and acknowledged only that five Russian citizens may have died. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told Congress the Russian high command had said the fighters were not theirs. On 10 February an MQ-9 destroyed a T-72 near the Tabiya field.