"We had a very, very severe, fight in Syria recently a month ago between our troops and Russian troops," Trump said on Wednesday during a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. "It’s very sad, but many people died in that fight."
On February 20, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that several dozens of citizens of Russia and CIS countries, who were not servicemen were injured in a clash in Syria. The ministry said that Russian nationals were present in Syria, noting that they had gone there at their own will for various reasons.
In February, the US-led coalition fighting against the Islamic State terrorist group* said that it had carried out defensive airstrikes against the pro-government forces in Syria that attacked the headquarters of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Soon after that media reported that at least 100 Syrian pro-government troops were killed in the coalition’s strikes.
*Islamic State terror organization, also known as Daesh, ISIS or ISIL, is banned in the United States, Russia and many other countries.