In a world in which “spying” is also known as “benign information gathering”, it makes sense that all “soldiers”, especially the recently deceased, are called “military advisors.”
In this vein, on Sunday the Russian Defense Ministry said that two Russian military advisers have been killed and five Russian soldiers injured during a clash with militants in Deir ez-Zor, according to the Russian Defence Ministry on Sunday. Two of the injured soldiers later died from their wounds, bringing the total dead to four.
Russian Defence Ministry: 4 Russian military advisers assigned to artillery battery were killed, 3 injured during a night-time firefight in Deir ez-Zor with a large mobile group of terrorists. 43 terrorists and 6 vehicles with heavy arms were eliminated – R.I.P. pic.twitter.com/i0ZoYVQQ47
— Russia in RSA ???????? (@EmbassyofRussia) May 27, 2018
According to the ministry, terrorists attacked Syrian and Russian troops, and the latter was forced to respond. A total of 43 terrorists were killed in the clashes, and six vehicles were also destroyed, the ministry stated.
“An artillery battery of the regime’s forces was attacked this night; two Russian military advisers, who controlled the fire of the Syrian battery, were killed on the spot,” the ministry said in a statement.
Russian servicemen along with the Syrian regime forces together fought the militants during the clash that lasted for about an hour; “43 terrorists” were also killed and six vehicles with heavy weapons were destroyed, the statement added.
Syria, which has been locked in a devastating civil proxy war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity. According to UN estimates, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict.