28.11.2005
Russian Intelligence Acted Against Americans in Iraq
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Pavel Simonov, AIA Russian section
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The Russian military intelligence (GRU)
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A special unit of the Russian military intelligence carried out a secret operation in Iraq against the Americans. A veteran of one of the elite units of the Russian army, a participant of the website forum http://desantura.ru/ yesterday informed about that. This website is dedicated to the various commandos units and military intelligence (GRU) of the Ministry of Defense of the former USSR and Russia. Most of the participants of this forum are the veterans of army special divisions, GRU, or other secret services. One of them, nicknamed as "Alex19711", informed that in 1991, when he was serving in the army, during the first Iraqi campaign "The Desert Storm": "we were gathered several times and given the analysis of preparations and actual combat operations." He learned from general-staff officers of the army, that the forces of the Iraqi antiaircraft defense shot down one American F-117 stealth aircraft. As "Alex19711" marks "While the search teams of the Yankees waited for sand storm to end, two of our non-officer scouting groups of special purpose (RGSPN) took off from the Moscow based military airport, found the stealth jet, which was shot down, and dismantled all elements of the equipment, which our scientific research institutes were interested in ".
Additional Details
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| Vladimir Kucherenko |
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For the first time this confidential GRU operation was mentioned in the book "The Battle for Heavens" written by the Russian journalist and historian Vladimir Kucherenko (his pen-name is Maxim Kalashnikov) published in 2002. As the author wrote "We know that in January 1991 our Osa (antiaircraft defense complex of the Soviet manufacture) destroyed an F-117. The Americans have hidden the details. But we know, that the jet fell in a neutral strip between the armies of Iraq and the units of the western coalition in Arab desert. And the scouting unit of the Main intelligence service of the Joint Staff of USSR (GRU) made a secret raid to it." According to the author, the Russians where interested in particular in the "radio transparent and
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"The Battle for Heavens" |
radio absorbing covering of the plane," and also in the "fairing of onboard radars, and samples of a windshield ".
Despite various details, Vladimir Kucherenko's message on secret GRU operation in Iraq caused serious doubts. His book "The Battle for Heavens" is written as a weird mix of historical genre and fantasy. Besides, it is full of rather odious, nationalist-patriotic style rhetoric. And the author failed to specify a source of the information on this confidential operation in Iraq.
On this background the message of the participant of the http://desantura.ru/ forum seems much more trustful. Apparently, during the first Iraq campaign he served in one of special units of the Soviet army. Besides, he specifies, whence he knows about the confidential GRU operation. Accordingly, "Alex19711" may be considered as a kind of a witness. Judging from his previous posts in this forum and other Russian-speaking Internet forums he is a real person with a very interesting background. Most likely, his name is Alexander and he was born in 1971. It is known that he is a graduate of the Air - landing armies (VDV) school in the Russian city of Ryazan. Some of his posts give a notion that he lives in the Russian city of Novorosiisk.
Moscow's Unrecognized Role
Moscow never acknowledged its participation in military actions in the Persian Gulf zone in 1991 at the of Baghdad's side. However, from the memoirs of Alexander Belonogov, the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of the USSR at that time it is known that before the war in Iraq there were thousands of the Soviet experts and advisers in this country. In November, 1990 their number reached close to 5500, in December the same year - 3315. The last of them - " 82 persons took off from Baghdad to Moscow on January, 9," i.e. a week prior to the beginning of the war. There were military experts among them (naturally the employees of embassy the of the apparatus of the military attaché are not counted, for they remained in Iraq through the war.) The exact number of the military experts in the last group of the Soviet citizens, which left Baghdad is unknown, but, according to Belonogov, at the moment of seizing Kuwait there were at least 200 of them in Iraq.
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| The Soviet military experts in Baghdad |
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In total, since the autumn of 1958 up to the beginning of 1990 8200 Soviet military experts and advisers worked in Iraq. The Colonel in reserve Ivan Litovkin told about that in his interview to the Krasnaya Zvezda – the edition of the Russian Ministry of Defense in April, 2003. He headed the group of the Soviet military engineers that worked in Iraq in 1973-77.
He also informed that "over 6 thousand Iraqi military servicemen from all the corps of their armed forces have passed training in higher educational institutions of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR. The majority of them perfectly knew how to operate the Soviet military equipment and arms, which were delivered to them and used it in combat operations."
Thousands of Iraqi graduates of the Soviet military educational institutions battled against the Allied forces in 1991 and 2003. Many of them today for certain continue to use the skills gained in the USSR fighting in the lines of numerous guerrilla groups in Iraq.
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See also:
Russia and Iraqi WMDs
The Iraqi WMDs and Russian Military Strategy in the Middle East
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