Date: May 28, 2018 Source: The Daily Star Syrian, Russian troops killed in Daesh attack BEIRUT/MOSCOW: At least 26 Syrian regime troops and four Russian fighters were killed in a Daesh (ISIS) attack earlier this week in Syria’s eastern desert, an activist group and the Russian military said Sunday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the militants had targeted a group of Syrian and allied Russian fighters near the town of Mayadin in Deir al-Zor province Wednesday. “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,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said. The remaining 26 were all Syrian troops, he told AFP. However, the Russian Defense Ministry said “terrorists” killed only four Russian soldiers, and wounded others. Russian and Syrian troops and pro-regime gunmen have been fighting members of Daesh in the eastern province after the extremists resumed their attacks against government forces and their allies in recent weeks. The Russian ministry said that the dead were military advisers attached to a Syrian army unit in Deir al-Zor province. In a statement reported by Russian news agencies, the ministry said “two Russian military advisers, who controlled fire of the Syrian battery, died at the scene.” It says five others were wounded, two of whom died in a Russian military hospital. The ministry said 43 insurgents were killed in the nighttime battle. The Russian statement came two days after Daesh said its fighters launched a surprise attack Wednesday from two axes on a joint Syrian and Russian convoy west of the town of Mayadin, killing 15 Syrian and Russian soldiers. Daesh militants destroyed five army trucks and armored vehicles and damaged a rocket launcher, the militants claimed in a statement. In the same area, Daesh also said they stormed three Syrian army checkpoints killing eight soldiers and capturing five others. It was not immediately clear if Daesh was speaking about the same area where the Russian advisers were killed. Russian-backed Syrian troops hold the western half of Deir al-Zor province, which is divided diagonally by the Euphrates River. U.S.-backed fighters hold the east bank. The river is meant to serve as a deconfliction line to prevent the two sides from clashing as they pursue separate assaults against Daesh.A Syrian military source based in the east told AFP that Assad’s troops had cleared large parts of territory from Daesh, which was retaliating. “Daesh wants to hinder the army’s combing operations in the [area] by waging these intermittent attacks,” the source said. The Russian military is backing the regime with airstrikes and troops, but there are widespread reports of private Russian mercenaries on the ground. Russia’s government officially acknowledges that 92 soldiers have been killed in Syria, although some estimate the number is even higher. After the collapse of its so-called “caliphate” last year, Daesh now only holds tiny pockets of Syria, mainly in the vast desert stretching to its eastern border.