Unidentified gunmen, believed to be affiliated with the Islamic State, attacked at dawn, on Saturday, groups of a Russian militia in the western countryside of Deir Ezzor.

According to "Ain Al-Furat" network, the attackers targeted the movements of the Russian-backed Palestinian "Al-Quds" Brigade, in Al-Masrib desert, while it was carrying out a new combing campaign.

The network added that the attack, in which two Tao missiles, mortars and heavy machine guns were used, killed five members and wounded six others, and lost contact with three, whose fate is unknown.

It pointed out that the militia was not able to withdraw the bodies of its dead and evacuate its wounded until after the intervention of the Russian occupier's helicopters, which used heavy machine guns to comb the area.

It is noteworthy that the Russian and Iranian militias suffer heavy losses in lives and equipment during the combing campaigns they are implementing throughout the Syrian desert, despite their possession of the latest technologies, in addition to the Russian air cover.