Russians killed in Isil hit-and-run attacks in Syria

RUSSIAN fighters were among dozens of pro-government forces killed in eastern Syria this week in a deadly wave of attacks by Isil jihadists.

After the collapse of its “caliphate” last year, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) now only holds tiny pockets of Syria, mainly in the vast desert stretching to its eastern border.

This week, the jihadists ramped up their hit-and-run attacks on regime positions there, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.

The deadliest was on Wednesday, when Isil targeted a group of Syrian and allied Russian fighters near the town of Mayadeen, in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor.

“There were 35 pro-government forces killed, including at least nine Russians. Some of those Russian nationals were government troops, but not all of them,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, the Observatory head. The remaining 26 were all Syrian forces, he told AFP.

Moscow’s defence ministry said yesterday four servicemen were killed in clashes in Deir Ezzor. Two were military advisers supporting Syrian artillery operations and died immediately, and another two died of their wounds in a Russian-operated military hospital in Syria. Three others were wounded.