MOSCOW, July 9 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday that two Russian military pilots were killed when a Syrian Mi-25 helicopter was downed by the Islamic State (IS) militants near Palmyra in Syria.
The two pilots, Yevgeny Dolgin and Ryafagat Khabibulin, came under fire from the IS militants on Friday while on their way back from an air strike mission against the armed extremists, the ministry said in a statement.
Their plane was hit and fell into an area controlled by the Syrian government forces, and the two crew members died, it added.
