It’s been a long time and I haven’t looked into it since it happened, but from what I remember before the west got a hold of the story was that Syrian militias were chasing either ISIS or some other similar group and there were going to launch an offensive on their stronghold. The Syrians crossed some imaginary red line in the sand around their al tanf base so the US bombed a few of them. The rest turned around and returned to their bases. At the time there was no mention of Russians or even mercenaries. Russia in Syria was mainly their air force with soldiers protecting their bases. Russian troops didn’t really fight except in a few instances.
I think the narrative took hold that America stomped the Russians was to saturated the news before people heard that America just killed a bunch of people to protect ISIS or al-qaeda
Syria was the proto-ukraine in terms of propaganda and I followed the war since 2012 or so. It was interesting watching al-qaeda split in HTS and ISIS with the Turks supporting both at one point as well as the Israelis. A lot of information from the war has been erased off the internet or at least the English speaking side
UFOs are just missionaries breaking the blockade