The Mi-8 helicopter was shot down in Idlib province after delivering humanitarian aide to the besieged city of Aleppo, according to the Russian defense ministry.
Advertisement
The Russian intervention has enabled government forces to gain ground on several front lines, recapturing the desert city of Palmyra from Islamic State and imposing a siege on the rebel-held eastern sector of Aleppo.
Militants forces allied to rebels attacked regime forces south and southwest of Aleppo Sunday in a bid to ease the siege of Syria’s second city, rebels and a monitor said.
Five people on board a Russian military helicopter have been killed after it was shot down over Syria, in the single deadliest incident for Moscow since it intervened in the war.
The attack came as Syrian rebel shelling left 28 civilians dead and dozens wounded in government-controlled southwestern districts of the battleground city of Aleppo.
The Kremlin has maintained that the helicopter crew was shot down after engaging in a humanitarian mission in Aleppo. It contributes to peace talks between Syrian government and moderate opposition factions not aligned with IS, Al-Nusra Front or other terrorist groups.
Apart from that, a Mi-25 (Mi-24 in export edition) helicopter of the Syrian air forces with two Russian officers onboard was downed on July 8.
With this incident, Russia’s reported military casualties since Putin ordered a pull-back from Syria in March have risen to 14.
An Mi-28N helicopter gunship crashed near Homs in April, killing both crew members.
The helicopter was en route to its base at Khmeimim when it was attacked in the Idlib region.
Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the Russians “died heroically” because they tried to veer away from inhabited areas to avoid civilian deaths.
So far, around 82 militants have surrendered themselves and arms to the Syrian government forces in eastern Aleppo, Rudskoi said, reiterating his country’s full support of UN Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura’s proposals on organizing the humanitarian process in Aleppo.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an independent monitoring organization, has said Russian airstrikes have killed about 5,000 rebel fighters and more than 2,700 civilians. Over the weekend, Russian Federation and Syria opened what they called a humanitarian corridor to allow civilians and rebels to leave the strategically important city, but it’s unclear if anyone took up that offer.
Advertisement
The aircraft had been delivering supplies to the Aleppo area, according to the Russian defence ministry.
