 Syria conducts joint operation with Russia to take control of local Wagnerites. At the beginning of Yevgeny Prigozin's mutiny in Russia, his mercenaries in Syria were disconnected from communications and offered the opportunity to sign a contract with Russia's Ministry of Defense with a lower salary. These actions were coordinated between Syrian forces and Russian representatives. Reuters reported it as Wagner mercenaries advanced on Moscow in an attempted mutiny in late June. Authorities in Syria and Russian military commanders there took a series of swift measures against local Wagner operatives to prevent the uprising from spreading according to six sources familiar with the matter. The previously unreported crackdown included blocking phone lines, summoning around a dozen Wagner commanders to a Russian military base and ordering mercenary fighters to sign new contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry or promptly leave Syria according to the sources which include Syrian security officials, sources based near deployed Russian forces and regional officials, the agency said. A senior Syrian Republican guard and a Syrian source briefed on the development said that senior Syrian military and intelligence officials have expressed concern in private conversations that the mutiny could undermine the Russian military presence they have long relied on and that it could lead to the outbreak of hostilities. Reportedly, the mercenary group's presence in Syria is relatively small at between 250 and 450 personnel. There are no official figures on their staffing. A local military source near Damascus and two Syrian sources with knowledge of the events who did not provide further information said that after Prigozin announced his uprising, a group of Russian military officers was swiftly sent to Syria to assist in taking control of the Wagnerites there. To prevent the Wagnerite forces deployed beyond Russia from communicating with one another, with Wagner in Russia or even with family members back home, Syria's military intelligence severed landlines and internet links from regions where they were stationed. By the 24th of June, Wagner fighters in Syria were asked to sign new contracts under which they report directly to the Russian Ministry of Defense. Sources state that their salaries were also cut. Those who refused these conditions were taken away by Russian IL cargo planes in the following days.