Deir ez-Zor

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced this on Tuesday.

"There are Russian nationals in Syria who have come there of their free will and for different goals. It is not for the Foreign Ministry to assess the legitimacy and legality of such decisions they have made," said a statement carried by TASS.

At least 23 civilians from one family were killed in air strikes by the US-backed coalition in Syria, the France press reported, citing the Syrian Human Rights Watch.

The Syrian government declared victory over Islamic State in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor on Friday, a big blow to the jihadists as their last stronghold in Syria crumbles, Reuters reported. 

Deir al-Zor, on the west bank of the Euphrates River, is the largest and most important city in eastern Syria, and is the center of the country's oil production.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday that Islamic State killed at least 128 people in a Syrian town in central Homs over a three-week period before the Syrian army recaptured it on Saturday.

There was no immediate comment from Syrian government officials or state media on the report by the Observatory, a Britain-based war monitor.

 U.S.-backed militias said they captured a major oil field in Deir al-Zor province on Sunday, pressing their offensive against Islamic State fighters in eastern Syria, Reuters reports.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said they gained control of al-Omar oil field, one of Syria's largest, on the eastern bank of the Euphrates river.

Russia accused the United States on Tuesday of pretending to fight Islamic State and of deliberately reducing its airstrikes in Iraq to allow the group's militants to stream into Syria to slow the Russian-backed advance of the Syrian army.

Russian sappers have started a large-scale de-mining effort in the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday, cited by TASS.

In total, the operation involves more than 170 servicemen and 40 pieces of special and engineering equipment.

A Russian general was killed while battling Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants near the eastern Syrian city of Deir Ezzor, Moscow's defense ministry has said.

A Russian lieutenant general died in Deir Ez Zor in Syria in a munitions shootout by Islamic state militants, the Russian Ministry of Defense said.

"The senior commander of the Military Advocates Group, Lieutenant General Valeriy Asapov, was at the command line of the Syrian troops, where he helped to run the release of the city of Deir Ez Zor," a ministry message said.

Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov has called on the US-led international coalition and the opposition supported by it not to hamper the actions of the Syrian government forces against terrorists.