title: Russia says its air strike kills several top Islamic State commanders in Syria
text: MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian air strike has killed around 40 Islamic State fighters, including four senior commanders, near the eastern Syrian city of Deir al-Zor, Russia s defense ministry said on Friday. The strike, carried out by Su-34 fighter-bombers and Su-35 fighters, came after an intelligence report on Sept. 5 showed that top Islamic State commanders were meeting at a secret underground command post in the vicinity of Deir al-Zor, the ministry said on its Facebook page. Among those killed was Abu Muhammad al-Shimali, who oversees foreign fighters at IS, it said. The defense ministry also said it had evidence that Gulmurod Khalimov, Islamic State s  minister of war , was present at the meeting in the bunker and had been fatally wounded in the strike and evacuated to the al-Muhasan area, 20 km (13 miles) southeast of Deir al-Zor. Khalimov, the U.S.-trained commander of Tajikistan s elite police force, defected to Islamic State in April 2015 and later posted a video address, vowing to return home to establish sharia law in his Central Asian nation and to take jihad to Russia and the United States. A top official at Tajikistan s national security service told Russia s RIA news agency that Moscow had been asked to provide details proving Khalimov s elimination. On Tuesday Syrian government forces, supported by Russian air strikes and cruise missile launches, reached troops besieged for years by Islamic State in Deir al-Zor, the militants  last major stronghold in Syria. 