MOSCOW: A Russian major general was killed and two servicemen wounded when an improvised explosive device went off near a Russian convoy in eastern Syria on Tuesday, news agencies quoted the defense ministry as saying.
The ministry said the device went off while the convoy was returning from a humanitarian operation near the city of Deir Ezzor.
The statement, released to the Interfax, RIA Novosti and TASS news agencies, said the three servicemen were wounded in the blast and that a “senior military adviser with the rank of major general” died while being evacuated and provided with medical assistance.
No further details were provided.
Thousands of Russian troops are deployed across Syria in support of its army.
Moscow’s military intervention in 2015, four years into the Syrian conflict, helped keep President Bashar Assad in power and started a long, bloody reconquest of territory lost to rebels in the early stages of the war.
In July, three Russian and several Turkish soldiers were wounded in Syria’s restive Idlib province when a joint military patrol was hit by an improvised explosive device.
Russian general killed by ‘explosive device’ in Syria
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Russian general killed by ‘explosive device’ in Syria
- Improvised explosive device detonated near a Russian convoy in eastern Syria
- Thousands of Russian troops are deployed across Syria in support of its army
UN warns of environmental hazards from Middle East war
- Several oil facilities in Iran were targeted by Israeli strikes Sunday, and Iran has also launched strikes on oil facilities in the region
UN chief Antonio Guterres’s office warned Monday of “serious environmental consequences” from recent strikes on oil facilities and desalination plants in the Middle East, saying they pose significant threats to air quality and drinking water.
“We continue to raise the alarm over the humanitarian impact of escalating violence across parts of the Middle East, which is driving rising civilian casualties, damage to civilian infrastructure and growing displacement of people,” the secretary-general’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric told a press conference.
He added that the United Nations was “particularly concerned by the number of reports of recent strikes on oil facilities, which could have serious environmental consequences across the region, with immediate possible impacts on safe water, on air that people need to breathe, and on food.”
Bahrain’s interior ministry had said Sunday that an Iranian drone attack also damaged a water desalination plant, which is essential infrastructure for the country’s economy and drinking water supplies.
“We reiterate again that all possible precautions must be taken to protect civilians from the impact of hostilities and to avoid damage to health facilities, schools, water systems and other essential infrastructure,” Dujarric said.
Several oil facilities in Iran were targeted by Israeli strikes Sunday, and Iran has also launched strikes on oil facilities in the region.
