CIT: Four Russian Special Forces Officers Killed in Syria

The investigative website Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), which monitors Russian military activity, has reported that at least four members of Russia's special forces have been killed in Syria on Saturday.

Makeshift Memorials said that on the same day "the four officers of the FSB Special Operations Center were killed while performing special tasks in the Syrian Arab Republic," photographs of the memorials posted by the CIT on Sunday showed.

The Special Operations Center of the Federal Security Service (FSB) was set up in 1998 by then-FSB leader Vladimir Putin as an outfit for domestic and international counterterrorism.

The CIT, which said it was investigating the position of the FSB unit in Syria, noted it could not independently verify media accounts of the deaths of the officers.

The Baza Telegram channel reported that the four officers were "fallen into militants ' hands" after their vehicle hit a landmine near Aleppo's northern city.

"They were found shot to death later," reported Monday Baza, which has links in Russia's security services.

The Special Operations Center officers were killed by mortar fire according to social media posts cited by the CIT.

Neither the FSB nor the Ministry of Defense has yet officially confirmed or denied reports of the alleged deaths of the four officers.

As of last spring, Russia reportedly confirmed 116 deaths of personnel in Syria officially. Moscow does not recognize the deaths of private military contractors, the activities of which are illegal under Russian law, according to the Moscow Times report on Sunday.