Over 120 IS Militants Killed In Russian Air Strikes In Syria

The Russian Armed Forces have killed over 120 Daesh militants coming from Tajikistan, Iraq and North Caucasus in a series of air strikes in Syria over the past 24 hours.

"In the strikes on Abu Kamal, the military destroyed a base and about 40 terrorists coming from Tajikistan and Iraq, as well as seven off-road vehicles with high-caliber weapons," the defense ministry in Moscow said in a statement Saturday.

The ministry noted that the armed forces destroyed a command post of terrorists near Meyadin city of Syria and killed up to 80 militants, including nine militants coming from the North Caucasus.

In addition, 18 off-road vehicles with high-caliber weapons and three arms depots were also destroyed, the ministry says.

As a result of an air strike, more than 60 foreign mercenaries from the former Soviet Union, Tunisia, and Egypt were killed in south of Deir ez-Zor.

The ministry said the "large numbers of foreign mercenaries" were coming into the Syrian border town of Albu Kamal from Iraq.

The spokesman of the Russian Defense Ministry Igor Konashenkov told TASS that during the past week located areas where IS reinforcement units and command stations were near Abu Kamal, as well as routes towards Mayadin and further on towards southern suburbs of the left-shore part of Deir ez-Zor. Destroying them continued for the recent days.  

Moscow has been carrying out air strikes in support of its ally Damascus targeting both ISIS in Deir Ezzor province and rival jihadists led by Al-Qaeda's former Syria affiliate in Idlib province in the northwest.