“The contract soldiers were escorting a vehicle convoy of the Russian Center for Reconciliation,” RIA Novosti reported a ministry official as saying, adding that the convoy was subjected to “mortar shelling by Islamic State terrorists while moving through the Deir ez-Zor province.”

One soldier was killed at the scene while the second one suffered severe injuries in the shelling and succumbed to his wounds in the hospital. The ministry's statement quoted by Russian news agencies late on Monday said the two men died when a convoy escorting Russian cease-fire monitoring staff came under mortar fire outside the eastern city of Deir el-Zour. “The wounded serviceman was promptly taken to a hospital where Russian military doctors fought for his life, but his injuries proved to be mortal,” the statement said. Deir ez-Zor, located on the shores of the Euphrates River to the northeast of Damascus, and a military airfield near the city have been besieged by Daesh for over three years, with food and ammunition only being delivered by air, while helicopters from the city of Qamishli have been evacuating the wounded and delivering essential supplies to the city's population.
Two Russian soldiers, escorting the military staff ceasefire monitoring convoy, are killed in Deir ez-Zor Province by ISIL shelling.