SSO sun of the Russian Federation in Syria. Heirs of the special forces: what tasks are facing the Russian Special Operations Forces in Syria. Equipment of the MTR fighters

Along the deserted streets of Palmyra, the wind drives smoldering rags and dried leaves of branches cut by splinters. Deserted houses sadly slam the shutters of windows that have long since lost all their glass. Rare Syrian soldiers, seeing us, show ISIS (ISIS is an organization banned in the Russian Federation - ed.) a house of worship, followed by a field hospital in the basement. On some houses there are still inscriptions in Russian: “There are no minutes.” After the last release. Now the sappers have not finished their work yet. A black terrorist flag flutters on the roof of the Heliopolis Hotel - the building of the former headquarters has not yet been cleared of mines. Over the past three years, the town has been twice attacked by medieval barbarians. And each time they were driven out of the city mainly thanks to the help of the Russian military. In addition to the Aerospace Forces bombers that crushed strongholds and fortified areas of militants from the air, units of the Special Operations Forces worked on the ground.

Special Operations Forces are the elite of the Russian Armed Forces Photo: Alexander KOTS

Komsomolskaya Pravda correspondent Alexander Kots spent the day with a Special Operations Forces unit near Palmyra.

The MTR is the elite of the Russian Armed Forces. Special forces, each fighter of which is a top-class specialist. These are snipers who destroyed terrorist leaders from among Russian immigrants. Thanks to them, Russian pilots accurately hit ISIS positions on the heights leading to Palmyra, bringing the liberation of the ancient city closer. Their names cannot be mentioned, their faces cannot be shown, and in many ways their work is classified as “Top Secret.” Together with a convoy of Special Operations Forces, I am moving to the front lines near Palmyra, from which the militants were thrown back, but they are leaving very reluctantly. In combat formation, armored vehicles travel only along proven bypass roads to minimize risks - militants can plant landmines at night.

MTR fighters differ from other representatives of the RF Armed Forces even in appearance. Although, if you meet such a person in civilian life, you will hardly be able to distinguish him from an ordinary passerby. Here you will find the most modern equipment, weapons and technical means. The fighters look, needless to say, impressive. Like in the movies. Only in a real war the cost of a mistake is disproportionately higher. You can't shoot a second take. The special forces from the hatches of the "Tigers" tenaciously peer along the flanks, moving the barrel of the AGS easel grenade launcher. The detour takes an hour and a half longer, but we get to the MTR observation post without incident.

MTR fighter in position Photo: Alexander KOTS

From here it is two kilometers to the village where the militants have settled. It’s five to the “green patch” under the height occupied by terrorists. Several Russian special forces soldiers are lying on a hillock, drilling into enemy territory with binoculars. A few minutes later, several powerful explosions mushroom on the horizon. The Russian Aerospace Forces, thanks to coordinates from MTR specialists, suppressed the resistance of the militants in the green area.

There is a large concrete hangar nearby. Inside are three burned out ISIS tanks. Above is a huge hole in the concrete as an example of the filigree work of Russian pilots. But the coordinates of this hangar were transmitted directly from the ground.

Special operations forces ensure the Syrian army moves forward. A new image of Russian special forces - well trained, well armed and equipped, performing tasks of any complexity anywhere in the world. Although, of course, the Syrians will have to do the main work themselves. No one will storm the heights occupied by ISIS for them. But thanks to the interaction of the Russian Aerospace Forces and the Special Forces, this will be much easier to do.

“This time, during the capture of Palmyra, everything went faster,” admit the Syrian fighters. — Almost all of us took part in the first assault and learned to interact with the Russians. We had to work hard to capture the Citadel - five machine gunners were sitting there, and you can’t bomb architectural monuments. But in the end we managed. We will not give up Tadmor (the Arabic name for Palmyra) again.

Thanks to the coordinates transmitted by the MTR fighters, Russian aviation launched a precise strike on the hangar in which three ISIS tanks were hidden Photo: Alexander KOTS

Four Syrian and one Russian planes passed over our heads, drowning out the roar of artillery, and headed towards the old city. There, in the amphitheater, music sounded again. On the occasion of the arrival of the commander of the Russian group Andrei Kartapolov in Palmyra, the Syrians organized a small concert of student ensembles who performed patriotic songs in gratitude for Russian help.

EQUIPMENT OF MTR FIGHTERS

Reading time: 2 minutes. Views 27 Published 09/21/2017

Syria, news September 12, 2017. Soldiers of the Russian Special Operations Forces as part of a special release squad destroyed militants of the terrorist group Jabhat al-Nusra, banned in Russia, who surrounded a platoon of Russian military police near Hama in Syria on September 19.

After a massive offensive by militants in the Idlib de-escalation area near Hama and the encirclement of a platoon of Russian military police, a special detachment was formed to relieve the besieged military personnel, which included SOF fighters and Russian Aerospace Forces aviation.

Before help arrived, the surrounded military police fought off the numerically superior enemy for several hours, three were wounded. A detachment of Russian special forces terrorists and fight their way out of encirclement. Three Special Operations Forces soldiers were injured.

Video of the combat operation of Mi-35 helicopters of the Russian Aerospace Forces in the battle near Hama, where a group releasing Russian military personnel on September 19 came to the aid of a detachment of Russian military police that was surrounded.

The footage shows helicopters transferring Special Operations Forces soldiers to the combat area. Guided missiles also strike terrorist positions.

Syrian units launched a counteroffensive and almost completely restored the lost position. According to the Ministry of Defense, the Nusra offensive was.

Syria: video of the clash between SOF fighters and terrorists near Hama. Footage has appeared showing how, during an operation to break through the encirclement of militants, a Russian relief detachment strikes Jabhat al-Nusra terrorists.

A Russian special forces fighter talks about his business trip to Syria and interaction with the Syrian military

How do you rate ISIS fighters? How have their units changed recently? Have new weapons, tactics, modern weapons appeared?

We had several business trips, and each time the militants changed. It was not like we arrived and the enemy remained the same. The situation does not stand still. For example, now militants have a lot of night vision devices. These are binocular devices and “Cyclops” (a night vision device with two eyepieces combined into one unit. - Izvestia). There are also “pipes” - night vision sights. They are installed on small arms. The militants also have “tepljaki” (thermal imagers - Izvestia). Previously, all this goodness did not exist. For example, we even captured Belarusian Pulsar night vision devices from the enemy. Quite good and relatively inexpensive products with a Chinese matrix. They also had “Pulsars” with rangefinder units.

- How effectively do militants use night vision devices and thermal imagers?

So far, militants do not fully know how to use this technique. For example, when they work with night vision scopes, they do not take into account the ballistics of the weapon. A bullet is not a laser beam. It flies along a certain trajectory. To hit, especially at a long distance, you need to make adjustments when shooting, make takeaways and take leads. They don't. That's why they often don't get there.

Sentinels at posts do not use “night lights” all the time. They look for a while and put away the devices. And then they just listen to what’s happening around them. Therefore, they often cannot detect in time what is happening near the position.

But still, in combat work you have to constantly take into account that the enemy has “warmers” and “nightlights”. Especially when you approach militant positions at night. You must behave very carefully, control your movements and carefully monitor the sentries.

- It is known that ISIS units often use various drones. Have you come across such products?

Mostly they make them with their own hands. They buy engines, control systems and other parts on the Internet. Quadcopters are also used. Drones and quadcopters work very efficiently.

For example, we saw this option. “Fantik” (quadcopter of the Phantom series. - “Izvestia”) with a fixed hook. An improvised explosive device (IED) is suspended from a hook. The IED has a remote detonation unit and legs. The camouflage device is covered with grass. “Fantik” secretly brings it and places it in the grass next to the road or in a trench. And the militants are watching and, when someone approaches or a car passes, they detonate the charge remotely. Its power is enough to break a truck wheel.

We have seen quadcopters with homemade bombs. Small tubes, strikers are made from nails, stabilizers are made from cut bags. The charge contains a fraction. The quadcopter is almost inaudible. He flies up and drops a bomb. Within a radius of 5 m you can receive serious shrapnel wounds. At the same time, militants understand the importance of drones. And they are trying to shoot down ours and the Syrians. They shot down a quadcopter of one of our units. Apparently, they got him from the SVD.

-Can you tell us about your combat work?

We tried to hit the enemy in the weakest places, where he was not waiting for us, and inflict maximum defeat. Once we went a good distance from the contact line to the rear of the militants. And at night they raided their positions.

The terrain in the area where we worked is a “Martian” landscape. There are cracks in the ground and stones everywhere, which are collected in heaps and shafts. Moreover, each shaft is 2–3 m high and from 500 m to 1 km long. The twists and turns make it difficult to navigate the terrain at night. At the same time, finding the enemy is not easy. The heated stones are very similar to the head or other parts of the human body.

There was a building deep in the enemy's defenses. At one time, the militants blew it up, and it settled. But if you climb onto its roof, or rather, what’s left of it, you’ll get a good view of the enemy’s position. But to get to the building, you had to cross the road. And it is located on a one and a half meter embankment, and when you overcome it, you become very noticeable. And a little further, at the intersection, the militants have a dugout with a heavy machine gun. Of course, I had to work hard. We began to monitor the enemy. They waited for the militants to lose their vigilance. Then we quickly overcame this milestone. We took positions, got ready and started working.

The militants clearly did not expect that someone would be able to attack them so boldly at night and exterminate them so intensively. We then “worked” several dozen people. At first the enemy was in shock. They did not understand what was happening and where they were being shot at from. But then their reserves increased. The enemy regrouped, and they started shooting at the “house” from all guns, leveling our shelter to the ground. Apparently, the enemy realized that it was most convenient to work from “home.” Plus, we noticed they had surveillance devices. The militants even tried to make a small detour and began to fire at us from the flank with a machine gun. There were some who were quite daring. Several militants went ahead. They were hiding behind rocks. They managed to overcome about 100 m. However, we killed them all. We began to move away from “home.” But the machine gun on the flank did not allow us to cross the road. But you can’t wait on the spot. They will cover you with mortar fire. I had to retreat along the road. When the enemy was changing magazines in his machine guns and reloading machine guns, we crossed the ill-fated road with a sharp dash. After this, we were already provided with a relatively safe departure.

A few days later we decided to plan an operation in another area using the same scheme. First, we studied the area, carefully worked out all the issues of the operation, and took into account previous experience.

But this time they decided to take more powerful fire weapons - hand grenade launchers. We also had machine guns, sniper rifles and machine guns.

It was relatively close to the place. But we walked very carefully. Therefore, the approach took us several hours. There were some abandoned positions along the way. Moreover, there were still awnings and mattresses lying there. I had to stop and inspect them. There could be mines there. There was a lot of garbage, tin cans and cartridge zinc in the grass. Even if you just hook it, there will be a lot of noise.

We arrived at the site quite late. Dawn was about to begin. Therefore, we had to act quickly and boldly. We settled down, observed the positions of the militants, assessed their number, weapons, and the nature of their actions. Well, we started working.

The subject of our interest was one building and the approaches to it. As we understand it, this is a kind of guardhouse. There the militants rested, ate food and prepared to take over the post. This is exactly what we needed. A large concentration of the enemy, who thinks that he is safe and does not expect an attack. They recorded the moment when a large number of militants gathered, apparently for instructions.

Then everything developed rapidly. They fired grenade launchers. The building flies up into the air, the militants panic. Our shooters, with precise shots, finish off those who were thrown back by the explosion and were beginning to come to their senses. Then, according to radio interception data, we were told that we had captured four important commanders and several dozen militants.

True, shots from grenade launchers immediately unmasked our positions and the militants again crawled out of all the cracks, like last time. The enemy had hidden communication routes along which their machine gunners advanced towards us. They turned around and opened fairly accurate fire. The bullets landed so close that you could feel their tracks with your body. The splashes were very close.

We began to retreat in an organized manner, covering each other under enemy fire. The first one covers, and the second one moves, takes a position, then the first one pulls up to him, etc. The militants again behaved very impudently. Plus they knew the terrain well. We have already moved a fair distance from the battlefield. Suddenly a militant jumps out from the flank and starts shooting. He managed to release almost the entire store in our direction. And I was just running across at that time. But my partner did a good job. All I heard was the sound of gunshots, “bam-bam.” A clear “two” right in the center of the “carcass”.

If we had delayed a little, the daring fighter would have come to our rear. The operation was very successful. We made quite a bit of noise there.

- How did you interact with the Syrian military?

It is necessary to establish interaction with them and involve them in every possible way in completing tasks. If we go on a mission, we gather Syrian commanders from all over the front. Often it is only at such meetings that they get to know each other. We help them establish interaction with each other. We explain where, how and from where we will work, and take their personnel with us. We make sure to instruct them to let us return from the battle and not to hit us with their fire. We try to leave our representative for coordination. Syrian soldiers are different. There are combat ones. And sometimes, under fire, you tell him to “run,” but he can’t move - his legs have become weak. And sometimes they start crying. On the one hand, they can be understood. We're here on a business trip. We won back and went home. And they have been fighting here continuously for six years.

On February 27, our country celebrated Russian Special Forces Day and rare footage of the work of special forces of the Special Operations Forces of the Russian Ministry of Defense in Syria was made public.

The elite of the Russian Army is captured in all its glory - details of modern equipment and weapons are clearly visible. In the footage, special forces soldiers operate in the urban conditions of war-torn Aleppo and in the desert area of ​​Homs province - near ancient Palmyra.

The military has camouflage weapons in their hands with the latest sniper and collimator sights, as well as silent shooting devices. In addition, Tiger armored vehicles, an anti-tank system and sniper rifles are in the frame.

The MTR of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation is an elite of elites, a concentration of experience, the latest technologies and modern methods of military labor.

The Special Operations Forces of the Ministry of Defense as part of the Armed Forces of our country are essentially the highest level special forces among all army special units. The MTR was created in 2009. Their tasks include mainly sabotage and reconnaissance operations. They know how to operate under water, on land and in the air, landing from many kilometers high and quietly approaching the enemy from the depths of the water.

The MTR special forces groups are armed with a wide range of weapons from small arms to the latest armored vehicles, high-precision sniper systems and anti-tank missile systems.

For many years, the fact of the existence of a new type of military was hidden, but during the counter-terrorism operation in Syria, the Russian leadership officially recognized the presence of Special Operations Forces in the Middle East. The combat experience of military personnel who went through this war is already being studied, because even according to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, it was thanks to the actions of domestic special forces in Syria that great successes were achieved in a short period of time, including increasing the accuracy of air strikes of the Russian Aerospace Forces.

"Russian Spring" She has written many times about the participation of Russian elite units in battles against international terrorism in various parts of Syria, and also published photographs and videos from this theater of military operations.

It is known that the Syrian Arab Republic is testing the latest special equipment designed for reconnaissance, detection and destruction of the enemy: infrared sights, thermal imagers, small reconnaissance drones and even combat robots are used.

All the experience of our military-industrial complex and special training over decades has been brought together. MTR operations in the SAR are best characterized by the words “military surgical intervention”: located deep behind enemy lines, with the help of high-precision sniper weapons, special forces achieve critical results comparable to weeks of air strikes.