Top Russian general killed in Daesh shelling near Deir ez-Zor, Syria

Lieutenant-General Valery Asapov, of the Russian armed forces, has been killed after coming under shelling from Daesh or (ISIS/ISIL) terrorists near Syria’s Deir ez-Zor, the Russian Defense Ministry has announced.

Asapov was one of the senior Russian military advisers working on the ground in Syria.

The ministry said Lieutenant-General Asapov died at a command station manned by Syrian troops, assisting commanders in the liberation of the city.

In early September, the ministry announced the death of two more Russian servicemen in Daesh shelling in Syria. Together with Asapov, that brings the overall death toll of Russian troops in Syria to 37.

Last week, Moscow announced that the Syrian military had liberated more than 85 percent of the strategic eastern city of Dayr al-Zawr from Daesh terrorists.

Lieutenant-General Valery Asapov is the highest-ranking Russian officer to be killed in the Syrian campaign. He was a commander of the 5th Army in Russia’s Eastern Military District, one of the four strategic commands in the Russian Armed Forces. The army is based in Russia’s Far East, in the city of Ussuriysk, some 98 km (61 miles) from Vladivostok.

Condolences have been pouring in since his Asapov’s death in an ISIS attack was announced, with those who knew the general personally describing him as a model Russian officer.

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