Ok. This is pretty tough.

Somewhere around February 7 or 8, U.S. forces acted in what they say was self-defense against pro-Assad forces in Syria.

These pro-Assad forces were backed by Russian mercenaries, employed by CHVK Wagner , and were attempting to capture an oil refinery in the Syrian city of  Deir Ezzor. The American troops stationed there retaliated with artillery and air strikes, beating back the advance.

The calls from the Russians were intercepted and translated by Polygraph.info, and they tell a very different story than what has been suggested by the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova.

Said Zakharova:

“Material about the deaths of dozens and hundreds of Russian citizens – it is classic disinformation. It was not 400, not 200, not 100 and not 10. Preliminary figures indicate that as a result of the armed clash that took place, the causes of which are now being investigated, we can talk about the deaths of five people, presumably citizens of Russia. There are also wounded, but all this needs to be verified – in particular, and first and foremost, [their] citizenship; whether they are citizens of Russia or other countries.”

Yeah. Ok.

Her twisting of what every other news agency is reporting, as well as what the recording tells may be related to the fact that private Russian military groups are illegal, even though, it appears that CHVK Wagner is well known as a military-for-hire group.

The transcript of the first audio recording reads:

“The reports that are on TV about … well, you know, about Syria and the 25 people that are wounded there from the Syrian f*** Army and — well … to make it short, we’ve had our asses f*** kicked. So, one squadron f**** lost 200 people …right away, another one lost 10 people… and I don’t know about the third squadron but it got torn up pretty badly, too… So three squadrons took a beating… The Yankees attacked… first they blasted the f*** out of us by artillery and then they took four helicopters up and pushed us in a f*** merry-go-round with heavy caliber machine guns….They were all shelling the holy f*** out of it and our guys didn’t have anything besides the assault rifles… nothing at all, not even mentioning shoulder-fired SAMs or anything like that…So they tore us to pieces for sure, put us through hell, and the Yankees knew for sure that the Russians were coming, that it was us, f*** Russians… Our guys were going to commandeer an oil refinery and the Yankees were holding it… We got our f**** asses beat rough, my men called me… They’re there drinking now… many have gone missing… it’s a total f***-up, it sucks, another takedown….Everybody, you know, treats us like pieces of sh*** … They beat our asses like we were little pieces of sh***… but our f*** government will go in reverse now and nobody will respond or anything and nobody will punish anyone for this… So these are our casualties…

So even if the Russian government doesn’t want to talk about this, it appears the survivors of the incident know they were beaten.

The second audio clip says:

“Out of all vehicles only one tank survived and one BRDM (Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle) after the attack, all other BRDMs and tanks were destroyed in the first minutes of the fight, right away.”

Then the third:

“Just had a call with a guy; so they basically formed a convoy, but did not get to their f*** positions by some three hundred meters. One unit moved forward, the convoy remained in place, about 300 meters from the others. The others raised the American f*** flag and their artillery started f*** ours really hard. Then their f*** choppers flew in and starter f*** everybody. Ours just running around. Just got a call from a pal, so there are about 215 f*** killed. They simply rolled ours out f*** hard. Made their point. What the f*** ours were hoping for in there?! That they will f*** run away themselves? Hoped to f*** scare them away? Lots of people f*** so bad [they] can’t be f*** ID-d. There was no foot soldiers [on the American side]; they simply f*** our convoy with artillery.”

Secretary of Defense James Mattis has spoken of the issue, reiterating that it was self-defense, and that the U.S. has no desire to become enmeshed in the ongoing Syrian civil war.

Still, that’s some pretty sweet fire power on the part of the U.S.