MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Two Russian contract servicemen have been killed in a mortar shelling by Daesh terrorists in the Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor, the Russian Defense Ministry said Monday.
"Contract servicemen accompanied a car convoy of the Russian Center for the Syrian reconciliation. When traveling in the province of Deir ez-Zor, it was shelled by mortar rounds fired by Daesh terrorists," the ministry said in a statement.
According to the statement, a Russian serviceman was killed on the site, while another one was seriously injured.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced earlier in the day that the Syrian government forces had driven Daesh terrorists out of key positions on the Palmyra-Deir ez-Zor highway.
The Syrian army supported by the Russian Aerospace Forces has been advancing toward Deir ez-Zor from three directions as part of the campaign to free the city launched in August.
Deir ez-Zor, located on the shores of the Euphrates River to the northeast of Damascus, and a military airfield near the city have been besieged by Daesh for over three years, with food and ammunition only being delivered by air, while helicopters from the city of Qamishli have been evacuating the wounded and delivering essential supplies to the city's population.
The lifting of the siege of Deir ez-Zor will lead to the complete defeat of the most combat-effective formations of the Daesh terrorist group in Syria, the chief of the Russian General Staff's Main Operational Directorate said earlier.
