The Russian Defense Ministry says one of its generals, who was serving as an adviser to Syrian government troops, has been killed in the country’s east, according to state news agency TASS.

The ministry reportedly said on September 24 that Lieutenant-General Valery Asapov “was at a command post of Syrian troops, assisting the Syrian commanders in the operation for the liberation of the city of Deir ez-Zor.”

TASS says that “as a result of a mortar shelling by the IS (Islamic State group), Asapov was mortally wounded.” 

In recognition of his services, Lieutenant-General Asapov is to be presented with a state decoration posthumously.

The Syrian government forces, backed by Russian air power and Iranian-allied militiamen, have gained control of most of the city of Deir ez-Zor on the western side of the Euphrates River.

Russia’s RT news agency reports that earlier in September the Syrian armed forces, working closely with the Russian Air Force, successfully broke the siege of Deir ez-Zor by Islamic State, and residents’ lives have begun to return to some semblance of normality.  With the highway between Deir ez-Zor and Palmyra back under government control, Russian and Syrian humanitarian aid has finally been able to flow through to the formerly besieged inhabitants.

Official figures from the Defense Ministry stated in August that 34 Russian servicemen had been killed in Syria since the start of the Russian military campaign there in 2015.

In early September, the Defense Ministry announced the death of two more Russian servicemen in IS shelling in Syria.  Together with Asapov, that brings the overall death toll of Russian servicemen in Syria to 37, according to RT.