Kyle
Rempfer
The
Army Times
A rare gunfight between U.S. paratroopers and pro-Syrian
regime forces last summer has led to charges against a senior enlisted soldier
assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
The clash occurred near Tal al-Zahab, in the
Syria’s northeast, where a tenuous U.S. military presence has guarded lucrative oil fields and
chased lingering Islamic State fighters.
Altercations with local militias and Russian forces last year highlighted the
unpredictable nature of the mission there, and at least one incident followed
soldiers home.
Sgt. 1st Class Robert Nicoson, of Blackhorse Troop, 1st
Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, was charged in early April with two counts of
failure to obey a lawful order, two counts of reckless endangerment, one count
of communicating threats and three counts of obstructing justice.
The charges stem from a roughly 10-minute
gunfight that erupted at a pro-Syrian regime checkpoint Aug.
17, 2020. The exchange reportedly killed
one Syrian fighter and wounded two others. There were no U.S. casualties. A
portion of the gunfight was caught on video, though it does not show how it
began.
After “receiving safe passage from pro-regime
forces,” the Americans “came under small arms fire from individuals in the
vicinity of the checkpoint” and returned fire in self-defense, Operation
Inherent Resolve officials said in a statement at the time.
Half-a-year later, OIR spokesman Col. Wayne
Marotto declined to comment on an investigation into the incident. The U.S.-led
coalition “cannot comment on any allegations that are under investigation or
the subject of current or pending court-martial charges,” he told Army Times.
The charges against Nicoson allege that he put soldiers
into a situation they shouldn’t have been in and made threats against the
pro-Syrian regime forces at the checkpoint before the gunfight started,
according to Nicoson’s civilian defense attorney, Phillip Stackhouse.
“Soldiers were told to stay two kilometers
away from particular Syrian forces, but the missions that [Nicoson] was a part
of, presumably took them within two kilometers of those same Syrian forces,”
Stackhouse said.
There was also a platoon commander leading the patrol,
Stackhouse added, but that soldier only received a General Officer Memorandum
of Reprimand following the incident.
“His platoon commander was there. In fact his
platoon commander was in one of the more lead vehicles and [Nicoson’s] vehicle
was the trail vehicle,” Stackhouse said. “The platoon commander is not charged,
so why are they charging Nicoson?”
A spokesman for the 82nd Airborne Division,
Lt. Col. Mike Burns, confirmed that only Nicoson is facing charges but declined
to comment on the platoon leader’s situation. Burns also declined to provide
charge sheets and added that the allegations are not limited to one incident.
But the checkpoint gunfight is at the “crux of the
allegations,” said Stackhouse.
The clash occurred in an area where a cluster
of tribal villages remain loyal to Russian-backed Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad, according to Nicholas Heras, a senior analyst at Washington’s
Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy.
“That pocket of regime control has existed
since the start of the Syrian civil war, and the U.S. forces would have been
well aware of it,” Heras said. “It is quite possible that this was a floating
checkpoint that the local regime-aligned militia decided to set up to harass
the Americans at a time of tension between U.S. and Russian forces.”
When the patrol encountered the checkpoint,
the platoon leader was speaking with higher headquarters while Nicoson
interacted with pro-regime forces through an interpreter, according to
Stackhouse. OIR officials said after the incident that the U.S. patrol was
cleared to pass through before they were fired upon.
As the gunfight unfolded, Nicoson and another
soldier left their trucks to draw fire away from a gunner who needed to reload
a crew-served weapon, according to a narrative by the non-profit group United
American Patriots.
That non-profit is
supporting Nicoson and has become well-known for advocating on behalf of U.S.
troops accused or convicted of war crimes, including Clint Lorance and Eddie Gallagher.
Nicoson isn’t
facing allegations that he acted inappropriately once combat started, according
to Stackhouse.
“But what they are
alleging is that [Nicoson], sort of prospectively threatened the forces at the
checkpoint — that if they shot or attacked [the Americans] … harm would come to
them,” Stackhouse added. “Being there to begin with, they’re saying, is
reckless endangerment.”
At the time of the
incident, OIR officials dismissed allegations circulating on social media that
an airstrike was ordered on the checkpoint. However, an Apache attack helicopter
did perform a show-of-force prior to the gunfight.
The obstruction
charges come from allegations that Nicoson instructed soldiers to delete GoPro
footage of the incident, which Nicoson’s defense team disputes.
Before an Army CID
investigation into the incident was completed, Nicoson was being written up for
a Bronze Star with valor, according to Stackhouse. The CID investigation was
“light” on details, he said, though Army Times has not seen a copy of the
document.
“I don’t think
it’s any stretch at all to say that CID and several of these military
investigative agencies conduct their investigations with a significant amount
of confirmation bias,” said Stackhouse. “We always have to do our own
investigation.”
https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2021/04/29/gunfight-at-syrian-checkpoint-leads-to-charges-against-sergeant-first-class/
