Explosion at weapons depot in Syria kills 15 Russian security personnel

An explosion at an arms depot occurred in Deir Ezzor province. Photo: AFP/Getty.

AFP on February 15 quoted a source from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) as saying that 15 Russians working for a private security company in Syria were killed after an explosion rocked their weapons depot in Syria.

The incident occurred at a weapons depot in Tabiya Jazira, Deir Ezzor province, northeastern Syria, SOHR said.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the SOHR, said the company was responsible for "protecting oil and gas fields controlled by the Syrian government".

"Fifteen Russians working for a Russian security company were killed in an explosion at a company arms depot in Tabiya Jazira, Deir Ezzor province," he told AFP.

Russian personnel are following Syrian government forces advancing toward oil and gas fields on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed alliance of Kurds and Arabs.

According to the SOHR website, Syrian government forces were trying to reach weapons in a warehouse when they were hit by a booby trap and caused the explosion. A total of 23 people were killed, including 15 Russians. Other casualties were fighters from the al-Baqir brigade of the Syrian government army.

The news of the Russian security forces’ deaths comes after a US-led coalition attack on the Coneco plant last week left several Russian mercenaries dead. The US-led coalition said the attack was in retaliation for an earlier attack on an SDF base near a gas field on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River.

The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has denounced the attacks as "war crimes".

The US-led coalition was established in 2014 to fight the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in Syria and Iraq, but has repeatedly been accused of bombing forces loyal to the Damascus government.