MOSCOW, June 17 -- The Russian Air forces eliminated two top Islamic State (IS) field commanders and some 180 terrorists during airstrikes in Syria in early June, the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday.
Based on disclosures by their unmanned aerial vehicles, the Russian troops in Syria carried out strikes on IS militants and thwarted the terrorist group's planned sortie against the defense lines of the Syrian government forces in the city of Deir ez-Zor, according to a statement of the ministry.
"The preemptive airstrikes, which the Russian Aerospace Forces carried out on the sites of ISIL facilities on June 6 and June 8, killed ISIL field commanders Abu Omar al-Baljiki and Abu Yassin al-Masri" Russia's Interfax news agency cited the ministry's statement as saying, using another acronym of the terrorist group.
In addition, a total of 180 IS militants were also killed, and 16 automotive and armored vehicles and tanks, one artillery, four control posts and an ammunition storage depot were destroyed as a result of the strikes, the statement said.
The Defense Ministry said Friday that an airstrike it carried out in northern Syria on May 28 might have killed IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. So far, no official confirmation of it has been released.