Two Russian servicemen have been killed after they came under shelling in Syria, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement, adding that one more soldier remains in the hospital, with doctors struggling to save his life.

Those killed were serving as military instructors within a unit of the Syrian forces, according to the statement. The unit came under mortar shelling launched by “a group of militants.”

Read more

“Two Russian servicemen were killed in a mortar shell explosion,” the ministry said, adding that one more serviceman is currently fighting for his life.

The ministry has not detailed the exact place and date of the attack, nor the identities of the servicemen.

Reports about the incident were released earlier in the Russian media.

Reports about the incident emerged earlier this week in the Russian media. On Monday, RBC media group talked to Evgeny Zavidny, who said that his brother, Igor, together with one more soldier had been killed in an attack.

“They were shelled by mortar fire and two people were killed,” Evgeny said, adding that Igor had been serving in the Russian Army for three years. He had reportedly served in Russia’s Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia Regions.

A friend of Igor posted pictures of him on Facebook, saying that he had been killed in Syria.

“RIP, a hero,” Irina Zubova wrote in a post, adding that Igor had been born in Russia’s Orenburg Region in the Urals in 1982.

Zavidny’s funeral will take place in his home town of Novotroitsk in Orenburg Region April 13, TASS reported, citing Galina Viskova, an official from the city council’s press service.

Earlier, the ministry said that a Russian soldier died near Palmyra, Syria, when Islamic State militants tried to break through an area occupied by Syrian pro-government forces. A Russian major general also lost both his legs and an eye when a radio controlled bomb hit a convoy going to an airfield located west of Palmyra in the Syrian city of Homs.

In February, four Russian servicemen were killed in Syria, when a radio controlled bomb targeting a Syrian military convoy exploded, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

The defense ministry earlier reported a total of 27 Russian servicemen killed in Syria since September 2015, when Moscow was invited by Damascus to assist in the counter-terrorism campaign. One more fatality was a suicide.