A Syrian rebel group said on Wednesday, August 8, it had killed a Russian general working as an adviser to Syria’s ministry of defence.

A video statement from a group calling itself the «Hawks Special Operations Battalion … a division of the Military Leadership of Damascus City and Province» gave the name of the general as Vladimir Petrovich Kochyev. The video, sent to Reuters, showed what the rebels said was a copy of his ID issued by the Syrian military.

«With the help of God, the Russian adviser for the minister of defence for military scientific affairs, General Vladimir Petrovich Kochyev, has been eliminated with his personal translator, Ahmad a-Ayyouq,» Lieutenant Majid Sayyed Ahmad of the Hawks battalion said in the video.

«A number of Syrian army documents have been also seized, together with reports about the opposition and the Free Syrian Army, adding to the achievements on the road to the liberation of Syria from the Assad gang,» he added.

The statement did not say when Kochyev was assassinated, but a senior opposition figure in contact with the group, who did not want to be named, said he was killed about two weeks ago.

The same group claimed responsibility for the assassination of four of President Bashar al-Assad’s top lieutenants in Damascus last month.

Russia, which has an estimated several hundred military personnel in Syria, is one of the few countries still backing Assad diplomatically since a popular uprising against his rule erupted 17 months ago.

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