Reconnaissance failed, aviation was hampered by a sandstorm
A large column of government troops of the Republic of Mali, which was accompanied by fighters of a Russian private military company (PMC), was ambushed by militants of a local terrorist organization. Several information resources tracking the African activities of our PMC reported this on July 28. Losses are in the tens, there are prisoners.
The former commander of the assault detachment No. 13 of the Wagner PMC with the call sign «Rusich» (4 Orders of Courage, 2 medals «For Bravery», the Order «For Merit to the Fatherland» of the 4th degree) said in his channel that the national armed forces are conducting an operation in Mali near the city of Tin-Zouatin with the support of the Wagner PMC. The 13th assault detachment, which «Rusich» previously commanded, is fighting there.
According to him, the unit suffered heavy losses — more than 80 people, 15 were captured. Among the dead is the administrator of the Grey Zone channel Nikita «Bely».
This is the biggest military failure of the Wagner PMC in recent years in Africa. It happened almost a year after the top military leadership of the company died in a plane crash, including its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, as well as the former GRU officer of the General Staff, Hero of the Russian Federation and Hero of the LPR Dmitry Utkin (six Orders of Courage), who headed the military organization of the PMC, whose call sign «Wagner» gave the PMC its name. Several more commanders died in the crash of the private plane with them.
According to experts, it was the change of military leaders that could have been one of the reasons for the emergency in Mali. Although the previous command acted boldly and decisively, it never neglected reconnaissance and carefully organized interaction with the aviation, which covered the ground units.
The first reports of the tragedy in Mali reported the crash of an Mi-24 escort helicopter, which was shot down from the ground. But later it turned out that the pilots managed to land the downed helicopter and no one on board was injured. The second Mi-8 helicopter was fired at from the ground, killing the crew commander. The right pilot landed the car at a safe distance.
Commenting on the battle in Mali, military expert Yuri Podolyaka noted that the Tuaregs are provided with intelligence information by Western countries that are recognized as unfriendly by the Mali government. “The Tuaregs are also supplied with communications equipment (without which it would be impossible to organize such an ambush). Well, as befits the guerrilla method of warfare, they chose the place and time (which is important considering that in many ways such a defeat was a consequence of the impossibility of air support due to a sandstorm),” the expert noted.
In turn, a military expert, former US Army officer Stanislav Krapivnik told MK that there could be several reasons why the convoy was ambushed.
— This includes ignorance of the territory, terrain features, and incorrect information about the actions and location of the enemy, he said. — False data may have been received. That is, due to misinformation, the convoy could have been led to a route where it was easiest to organize an ambush. In short, there may be many reasons.
It is possible that the command of our PMC overly relied on help from the local armed forces. There are a lot of questions, but unfortunately there is little reliable information.