It was the deadliest single incident for Russia’s military since its air campaign began last September.
Advertisement
Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the Russians “died heroically because they tried to move the aircraft away so to minimize losses on the ground”.
Video footage showed dozens of men cheering around the flaming wreckage, some of them taking photographs with their phones and others yelling, “Allahu Akbar” (“God is great”). The attack on a Russian Mi-8 helicopter that was returning for a humanitarian mission in Syria is a villainy committed by those who want the war in the Middle East to continue, speaker of Russia’s Federation Council upper parliament house Valentina Matviyenko said on Monday.
The attack was repelled by the Syrian army and militias with support of the Russian air force, Rudskoi said, adding that over 800 militants were killed during the fighting, and about 14 tanks, 10 infantry fighting vehicles, over 60 vehicles with mounted guns were destroyed.
None of Syria’s many rebel groups immediately claimed responsibility for shooting down the helicopter. The monitoring group, which tracks violence across Syria, said pro-government jets had bombed rebel-held Khan Touman in the southern countryside of Aleppo, and opposition fighters had shelled government-held parts of central Aleppo overnight.
Jabhat Fateh al-Sham – formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra – was among those active in the province, and so-called Islamic State has vowed to carry out jihad against Russian forces.
Syrian opposition fighters have launched a major assault on government-held southwestern parts of Aleppo to try to reopen supply lines after the army and its allies tightened their siege of opposition-held parts of the city last week. Neighborhoods in the city have been under siege for as long as 80 consecutive days according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights.
Monday’s developments come a day after Syrian rebels launched the offensive to break up the government’s siege of eastern, rebel-held part of Aleppo.
The United Nations has warned of a potential humanitarian catastrophe as regime troops backed by Russian air power tighten their grip on the ruined city.
The U.N. estimates some 300,000 people are still trapped in the rebel section of Aleppo, with dwindling food and medical supplies. Six people were killed in the strikes, including a pharmacist in the hospital.
Opposition activists have dismissed Russian claims that 160 civilians had left rebel-held districts as a lie. The Syrian regime and Russian Federation say four more corridors will soon be made available.
But CNN sources on the ground there say that the corridors are barely being used as an escape route. But the United Nations raised misgivings about the plan and US officials suggested it might be an attempt to depopulate the city so that the army can seize it.
Four hospitals and one blood bank were hit by airstrikes on the weekend of July 23 and 24, according to UNICEF.
Advertisement
Another prominent rights group, Amnesty International, has accused Russian Federation and the Syrian government of “deliberately attacking health facilities in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law”. He said the al-Qaida linked Nusra Front spearheaded the offensive.
