In a first of its kind event, Russian television today showed what it says is the first footage of Russian special forces fighting on the ground in Syria.

Elite Russian units in Syria take part in search and rescue operations, assassinations of key rebel figures and coordination of air strikes, according to footage broadcast on state-owned channel Rossiya 24 on Sunday. Groups of heavily armed soldiers were shown coordinating sniper attacks, using robotic tanks and inspecting rebel corpses.

The presenter of the weekly news program said the footage was filmed in Syria but did not give details.

Russia first acknowledged the presence of its special forces in Syria during the re-capture of the city of Palmyra from Islamic State fighters in March, but it has provided no information on the number of deployed soldiers or their exact location.

The video shows more than 8 minutes of fascinating footage which reveals that traditionally the most impactful developments "on the battlefield" take place just behind the scenes.

And now we wait for similar footage from US special forces in Syria - after all, it is now effectively a contest - and hope that the Russian and US teams never "confuse" each other for the enemy. Meanwhile, watch - for the first time - how Russian special ops engage their enemies in Syria.