In this photo released on Friday, July 29, 2016 by the Syrian official news agency SANA, municipal workers prepare aid inside buildings prepared by the Syrian government to host people who will left rebel-held neighborhoods of the northern city of Aleppo, Syria. It was not clear if the helicopter belonged to the Syrian regime or to Russian Federation.
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Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said the Russians “died heroically because they tried to move the aircraft away so to minimize losses on the ground”.
“Three crew members and two officers from the Russian Reconciliation Center in Syria were on board”, the ministry said in a statement reported by RT.
Jihadists and rebel groups launched a major assault Sunday on the southern edges of the divided city in a bid to break a government siege of eastern opposition-held neighbourhoods. At least 30 civilians have been killed.
A spokesman for Syria Civil Defence told Reuters that 33 people, mostly women and children, were affected by the gas in Saraqeb.
The crash was the single deadliest incident for the Russian military since entering the Syrian civil war that Moscow has publicly acknowledged. United States officials have suggested that a Russian and Syrian “humanitarian operation” for the besieged city of Aleppo is a ruse to evacuate civilians so that their forces can go after militants in the city who oppose Assad’s rule.
The offensive groups fighters from Fateh al-Sham Front, formerly Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front, as well as the powerful Islamist Ahrar al-Sham and other factions. Terrorist groups such as Daesh, as well as Jabhat Fatah al Sham (previously known as the al-Nusra Front), both outlawed in Russian Federation and a range of other states, are not part of the deal.
Saraqeb is close to where a Russian helicopter was downed, most likely by Syrian rebel forces, after returning from what the Russian government claims was a humanitarian mission.
He said first responders smelled the gas at the site of the bomb attack, which he described as a busy shopping area near an ice cream shop.
At least 28 civilians have been killed and scores more wounded by militant shelling in Syria’s Aleppo over the last 24 hours, says a monitoring group.
The United Nations has warned that basic supplies for the 250,000 people who live in besieged areas would last only three weeks.
Last week Russian Federation announced the opening of “humanitarian corridors” to allow residents and surrendering fighters to flee the east for government-held territory.
The observatory said the rebels had advanced overnight south and southwest of Aleppo, but reported ongoing fighting, as well as government air strikes on the battlefield and rebel-held eastern neighbourhoods.
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Residents and rebels on the ground had dismissed the reported weekend crossings as “lies”.
