This is the moment a US fighter jet destroyed a Russian tank in Syria – after it emerged that hundreds of Russian mercenaries are secretly fighting in the country.

The US jet destroyed a Russian-made T-72 tank during a bombing raid designed to protect rebel fighters in Syria on Saturday, reportedly killing hundreds of fighters, including a number of Russian mercenaries.

If that proves true it would be the biggest clash between American and Russian forces since the end of the Cold War - and represent an escalation of tensions between the world's two most powerful armed forces who are engaged in a war by proxy in Syria.

The tank was targeted near Al Tabiyeh in a bid to stop it firing towards a position held by American forces and their Syrian allies, a Pentagon spokesman said.

It happened days after the US military said its anti-jihadist coalition had carried out strikes in 'self-defense' against forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the same region, leaving an estimated more than 100 pro-regime personnel dead.

It comes after reports that more than 200 private Russian military contractors were killed in a failed attack on a base held by U.S. and Kurdish forces last week, Bloomberg reports.

Footage captures the moment a US fighter jet destroyed a Russian tank in Syria – after it emerged that hundreds of Russian mercenaries are secretly fighting in the country

The US jet destroyed a Russian-made T-72 tank during a bombing raid designed to protect rebel fighters in Syria on Saturday

Kremlin lies: President Vladimir Putin is accused of covering-up his reliance on mercenary soldiers, pictured, to minimise the extent of regular army casualties in Syria

In recent weeks, more than 600 Russian mercenaries have reportedly been killed in Syria, many of them in airstrikes carried out by the U.S.-led coalition.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been challenged to publicly admit to the mass deaths and accused of covering up his government's reliance of hired guns to minimise the extent of regular army casualties.

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov refrained from commenting on the reports about the deaths last week, saying on Tuesday that they need to be verified.

Asked during a conference call with reporters if Putin raised the episode during Monday's phone conversation with President Donald Trump, Peskov said the situation in Syria wasn't discussed during the call.

The Kremin said it had no information about Russian mercenaries being killed in Syria, saying it only knew about Russian nationals who have been deployed there as members of the armed forces.

'We don't have information about other Russians who might be in Syria,' Peskov told reporters on a conference call.

The denial comes despite the leader of one of the private armies of mercenaries being photographed meeting Putin and attending a ceremony in the Kremlin.

Opposition politician Grigory Yavlinsky, who is standing against Putin in next month's presidential election, has called on him to come clean on his use of mercenaries to prop up Syrian president Bashar-al-Assad - and to tell the Russian people the scale of the losses.

Mr Yavlinsky claims mercenary forces 'are trained at Russian army facilities' and 'receive military awards in the Kremlin' in secret, he alleged.

'They are, in essence, special troops of the Russian army - despite the fact that mercenaries and private military companies are officially banned in Russia'.

'Officially denying deaths of armed Russian citizens that fight in Syria by the leadership of Russia is absolutely unacceptable,' he said.

Killed: Vladimir Loginov and Igor Kosoturov were both reportedly killed in Syria this month

Russian mercenary soldier Alexey Ladygin, 26, from Ryazan, perished in Syria last week

'I call on Russian president Vladimir Putin to clarify this. If there were mass deaths of Russian citizens, then relevant officials including Commander-in-Chief of Russian Armed Forces (Putin), must announce it to the country and determine who is responsible.'

The Kremlin has consistently refused to talk about the deployment of mercenaries - which is illegal in Russia - to Syria and rebel-held eastern Ukraine.

According to Igor Strelkov, a former intelligence officer who was a commander of pro-Putin clandestine military operations in Ukraine, said the number of Russians killed in bloody clashes recently could be as high as 600.

Dead: Stanislav Matveyev, 38, was also reported killed in Syria

'It is clear that there are hundreds of dead and injured, several hundreds,' he said.

'But the latest figure looks too extreme, it's allegedly over 600.'

He claimed he was told by Russian private army sources in Syria that by Saturday, 644 had been killed, but he could not verify the figure.

Pictures of a handful of the mercenaries who perished in Syria in the past week have emerged.

One was Cossack fighter Vladimir Loginov, 51, from Kaliningrad, a father of two who formerly worked for the Russian Interior Ministry, who died in a U.S.-led coalition airstrike on February 7.

He fell 'heroically defending our Motherland in its far reaches from crazy savages', according to the Baltic Cossack Union in Kaliningrad.

Other mercenaries killed were Stanislav Matveyev, 38, and Igor Kosoturov, 45, from Asbest, Alexey Ladygin, 26, from Ryazan and Kirill Ananyev, 33, also with the same private military unit.

Several of the mercenaries killed were reportedly employed by a shadowy private army called Wagner, which has close ties to the Russian defence ministry and whose leader has met Putin.

Wagner - or Vagner - is the nickname of an ex-Russian special forces officer called Dmitry Utkin, who runs the private army.

Utkin is reported to be the ex-commander of the famous Pskov special forces brigade and has been photographed with other Wagner army chiefs and Putin at a Kremlin ceremony. Other leaders of Wagner include decorated former senior Russian army personnel.

Such 'deniable' forces enabled Russia to deploy in Crimea, other areas of Ukraine and Syria, while denying its soldiers were on the ground.

Accusations: Putin has been accused by opposition politician Grigory Yavlinsky, pictured together, of lying about the government's ties to the mercenary armies

The funding for the secret army is believed to come from Russia's military budget.

A military analyst said: 'Russia is putting these mercenary forces in harm's way on the ground, while the regular army and Air Force are not at the frontline.

Russian media said the Russian private contractors were part of pro-government forces that advanced on oil fields in the eastern Deir el-Zour province and were targeted by the United States.

The reports cited activists who confirmed that at least four Russian citizens were killed in Syria last Wednesday.

US JET DESTROYS RUSSIAN-MADE TANK IN SYRIA A US jet has destroyed a Russian-made T-72 tank during a bombing raid designed to protect rebel fighters in Syria, it has emerged. The tank was targeted near Al Tabiyeh on Saturday in a bid to stop it firing towards a position held by American forces and their Syrian allies, according to a Pentagon spokesman. The tank had been 'maneuvering with coordinated indirect fire' on a position held by Syrian Democratic Forces - a US backed rebel movement that has been battling ISIS. While America has been training and equipping SDF rebels during the brutal civil war in Syria, Russia has been backing forces loyal to dictator Bashar al-Assad operating nearby. Advertisement

The U.S. military said last week it launched air and artillery strikes on Syrian government-backed troops after some 300 attackers launched what appeared to be a coordinated assault on Syrian opposition forces accompanied by U.S. advisers in the province of Deir el-Zour.

It said it was in regular communication with Russian counterparts before, during and after the attack, and Russian officials assured coalition officials they would not strike coalition forces.

It said the U.S. strikes, which reportedly killed about 100 of the attackers, were in self-defense.

The Russian Defense Ministry said 25 Syrian volunteers were wounded in the U.S. strike and insisted that its troops weren't involved in Wednesday's incident.

It said that pro-government forces that advanced toward the area under control of the U.S.-supported forces had failed to coordinate their action with the Russian military in Syria.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Thursday dismissed any suggestion that Russia had any control over the attacking force, whose nationalities, motives and makeup he could not identify.

The U.S. strike came as U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces were vying for control of the oil-rich Deir el-Zour province with Russian-backed Syrian troops that are reinforced by Iranian-supported militias.

The Russian and the U.S. militaries have maintained regular communications to avoid collisions on the chaotic Syrian battlefield.

Mercenary leader: Several of the mercenaries killed were reportedly employed by a shadowy private army called Wagner, whose leader, Dmitry Utkin, pictured, has met Putin

Making friends: Utkin, far right, is photographed with other Wagner army chiefs and Putin at a Kremlin ceremony

If the death of Russian private contractors is confirmed, it could further strain ties between the two countries that have plummeted to the lowest levels since the Cold War over the Ukrainian conflict, the war in Syria and the alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.

Without mentioning the U.S. strike, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted on Tuesday that 'Americans have taken dangerous unilateral steps.'

'Those steps look increasingly as part of efforts to create a quasi-state on a large part of Syrian territory - from the eastern bank of the Euphrates River all the way to the border with Iraq,' he said.

The state Tass news agency on Tuesday cited Natalya Krylova, a municipal lawmaker in the town of Asbestos in the Urals, as saying local residents Igor Kosoturov and Stanislav Matveyev were killed in Syria Wednesday.

The Interfax news agency said that the Cossack group in the westernmost Kalningrad region said a member named Vladimir Loginov was killed in combat in the province of Deir el-Zour.

Putin's friend: Dmitry 'Wagner' Utkin, circled, is pictured at the reception dinner at the ceremony in Kremlin

It also quoted Alexander Averin, leader of extreme leftist group Another Russia, as saying that one of its activists, Kirill Ananyev, was killed by the U.S. strike near Khusham.

Liberal politician Grigory Yavlinsky, who is running for president in Russia's March 18 presidential election, urged Putin to come into the open regarding the deaths of Russians in Syria, saying that official silence on the subject was 'unacceptable.'

'If many Russian citizens were killed, officials, including the commander-in-chief, must tell the nation about it and determine who is responsible for that,' he said.

Russia has waged a military campaign in Syria since September 2015, helping Syrian President Bashar Assad's government seize large chunks of territory and turn the tide of war into its favor.

Russian media have reported that in addition to Russian servicemen deployed to Syria, thousands of Russians also fought there as private contractors, allowing the Kremlin to keep the official death toll from its campaign in Syria low and avoid the negative public response.

The Kremlin and the Russian Defense Ministry have refused to comment on media reports on Russian private contractors in Syria.



