{"id":113092,"date":"2021-04-30T10:56:51","date_gmt":"2021-04-30T14:56:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=113092"},"modified":"2021-04-30T10:56:51","modified_gmt":"2021-04-30T14:56:51","slug":"army-sfc-charged-in-relation-to-syrian-firefight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=113092","title":{"rendered":"Army SFC charged in relation to Syrian firefight"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
SFC Robert Nicoson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We talked about the battle when it happened back in August<\/a>. Army authorities have done an investigation and have now charged the SNCO platoon sergeant 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.<\/p>\n

According to his civilian defense attorney, Sergeant First Class Robert Nicoson of the 82nd Airborne Division was on patrol with his platoon commander (read officer, usually a lieutenant) present. That officer is apparently not facing charges.<\/p>\n

Nicoson’s not being accused of any misconduct once the shots started flying.<\/p>\n

Army Times reports<\/a>;<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The clash occurred near Tal al-Zahab, in the Syria\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

After \u201creceiving safe passage from pro-regime forces,\u201d the Americans \u201ccame under small arms fire from individuals in the vicinity of the checkpoint\u201d and returned fire in self-defense, Operation Inherent Resolve officials said in a statement at the time.<\/p>\n

Half-a-year later, OIR spokesman Col. Wayne Marotto declined to comment on an investigation into the incident. The U.S.-led coalition \u201ccannot comment on any allegations that are under investigation or the subject of current or pending court-martial charges,\u201d he told Army Times.<\/p>\n

The charges against Nicoson allege that he put soldiers into a situation they shouldn\u2019t have been in and made threats against the pro-Syrian regime forces at the checkpoint before the gunfight started, according to Nicoson\u2019s civilian defense attorney, Phillip Stackhouse.<\/p>\n

\u201cSoldiers 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,\u201d Stackhouse said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis platoon commander was there. In fact his platoon commander was in one of the more lead vehicles and [Nicoson\u2019s] vehicle was the trail vehicle,\u201d Stackhouse said. \u201cThe platoon commander is not charged, so why are they charging Nicoson?\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s situation. Burns also declined to provide charge sheets and added that the allegations are not limited to one incident.<\/p>\n

But the checkpoint gunfight is at the \u201ccrux of the allegations,\u201d said Stackhouse.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

More at the source. Thanks to Jeff LPH 3 for bringing this one to our attention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We talked about the battle when it happened back in August. Army authorities have done an … Army SFC charged in relation to Syrian firefight<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[220,359,223],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-floggings-will-continue-until-morale-improves","category-army","category-syria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=113092"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113094,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113092\/revisions\/113094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=113092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=113092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=113092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}