MOSCOW – At least four Russian servicemen, including two military advisers,were killed in Syria after they were shelled by militants, the RussianDefense Ministry said Sunday.
Several groups of militants attacked the Syrian army’s artillery battery inthe province of Deir al-Zour at night, killing two Russian militaryadvisers on the spot and wounding another five soldiers, the ministry said.
The injured were immediately taken to a Russian military hospital, but twoof them died there, it said.
The RIA Novosti agency said that “a few mobile terrorist groups” hadattacked the Syrian army’s artillery battery during the night.
The Syrian and Russian troops fought the militants for about one hour andkilled 43 militants and destroyed six cross-country vehicles armed withlarge-caliber weapons, according to the ministry.
Russia has been participating in the fight against the Islamic State andinsurgent groups in Syria since September 2015 at the request of SyrianPresident Bashar al-Assad.
Russian servicemen and military facilities in Syria have been attacked bymilitants several times, causing a number of deaths.
Officially Russia has lost about 90 personnel in the Syrian civil war.
After seven years of war, the Syrian government, backed by Russian andIranian military muscle, now controls much of central Syria, including thesecond city, Aleppo.
Rebel forces are now concentrated in Idlib.
Over seven years of war, more than 400,000 people have been killed orreported missing, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
More than half the population of 22 million have been driven from theirhomes with at least 6.1 million Syrians internally displaced, and another5.6 million living abroad, the vast majority of them in neighbouringcountries, such as Lebanon.