On August 18-24, Russian and Syrian air forces, supported by artillery and special forces, destroyed 327 militants from the group involved in the murder of a Russian military adviser on August 18 in the Syrian desert, a representative of the Russian group in Syria told reporters on Tuesday.
"From 18 to 24 August, with the direct participation of Russian military advisers, the SAR government troops prepared and conducted a large-scale operation to defeat the gangs. Air strikes of the Russian air force and the Syrian air force, artillery fire and the actions of special purpose reconnaissance and search groups in the area of the "white desert" eliminated 327 militants, destroyed 134 shelters, 17 observation posts, 7 warehouses with material supplies and 5 underground storage of weapons and ammunition, " the military said.
He added that as a result of the actions of the militants of this group, "on August 18, this year, a Russian senior military adviser, major General Vyacheslav Gladkikh, was killed by an improvised explosive device planted by terrorists in the province of Deir ez-Zor."
Militants under the aegis of the US military
According to the source, an increase in the activity of gangs and former members of ISIS (the group is banned in the Russian Federation) was observed in the area of the Syrian desert in the center of the country over the past month. And most of the militants appeared in the area after the so-called Amnesty held by the US-controlled "Autonomous administration of North-Eastern Syria," he added.
ISIS gangs are being replenished in the Syrian desert by fighters trained in the US-occupied territories of the El-Tanf zone and the Syrian Euphrates Region. "By committing sabotage on transport communications and acts of sabotage at the facilities of the oil and gas industry in Syria, attacking patrols and posts of the Syrian army, the militants are destabilizing the situation in the region," the representative of the Russian group said.
He also noted that the terrorists ' actions disrupt the process of socio-economic reconstruction of Syria and the establishment of relations between local Arab tribes and Damascus.
"This situation is primarily beneficial to the United States and allows them to justify their presence in the East of Syria. To counter the terrorists, the Syrian government and the Russian aerospace forces have focused their efforts on identifying a network of masked militant targets in the "white desert," the military said.
"The operation to clear the "white desert" from the remnants of gang groups will continue until the complete destruction of the us-controlled armed groups operating there," he stressed.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS