Russian ‘Spetsnaz’ special forces commandos have been in Syria since 2014. But what are the deadly forces doing there? Russia Insider explains: Russia reported that a key element in the Syrian conquest of Palmyra in late March 2016 was the presence of Spetsnaz commandos with the Syrian troops. As expected the Spetsnaz served as ground controllers to call in air strikes by Russian bombers and helicopter gunships. Spetsnaz also used their reconnaissance skills to find ISIL positions and call in Syrian troops or an airstrike. In one well publicized incident a Spetsnaz man found himself surrounded by ISIL fighters and heroically called in an airstrike on his own position. The killed the Spetsnaz man as well as many ISIL gunmen. As happened in Afghanistan during the 1980s and Chechnya since the 1990s the Spetsnaz became noted as the most dangerous foe even for fanatical Islamic warriors. What was different in Syria was that Spetsnaz were not used for raids. Like their Western counterparts Spetsnaz are trained to do reconnaissance (often deep into enemy territory), provide security for very valuable people or equipment and carry out “direct action” (raids). Spetsnaz did this in Afghanistan in the 1980s and in the Caucasus [...]