FILE – Men inspect the wreckage of a Russian helicopter that had been shot down in the north of Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province, Syria, Aug. 1, 2016.
Advertisement
A Russian military helicopter has been shot down in Syria, killing all five people on board.
It said nine people, including three children, were killed on Monday and 11 people died in attacks on Sunday.
The Russian helicopter downed Monday crashed about 15 kilometers from the site of the chemical attacks. ISIS fighters are not active in the area, but there are other Islamist rebel groups there, as well as moderates backed by the USA and its allies.
“The daily reality confirms that all the global agreements and previous Security Council decisions, be they about chemical weapons or otherwise, are meaningless for the Assad regime”.
Rudskoy specified that the result was achieved by “Syrian army troops and the national militia, with the support of Russian aviation”, Sputnik reported. Rebels have launched an offensive to try to break a government siege.
Russian Federation and Syria announced the opening of what they called humanitarian corridors for civilians and rebels wanting to surrender, but few people have reportedly used them, fearing they would be targeted.
But only 169 civilians fled over the weekend, the Russian military said, just a fraction of the 200,000 to 300,000 people trapped there. But the United Nations raised misgivings about the plan and USA officials suggested it might be an attempt to depopulate the city so that the army can seize it.
United Nations deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters in NY that the U.N.is aware of Monday’s crash of a Russian helicopter in rebel-held territory and reports that it was on an operation to deliver aid.
At least 6,000 people have been either killed or injured in that time, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights.
In one video, a rocket pod can be seen next to the wreckage.
The Syrian regime’s key ally Russian Federation launched heavy air strikes overnight on the outskirts of divided Aleppo city, slowing a “last-chance” assault by rebels seeking to break a government siege.
The Russian Defense Ministry also said that an aircraft of the Abakan Air, Russian aviation company, delivered 21 metric tons of humanitarian aid to Deir ez-Zor.
A quarter of a million civilians still live in Aleppo’s opposition-controlled eastern neighborhoods, effectively under siege since the army, aided by Iranian-backed militias, cut off the last road into rebel districts in early July.
Advertisement
A Syrian rescue service operating in rebel-held territory said on Tuesday that a helicopter dropped containers of toxic gas overnight on a town close to where a Russian military helicopter was shot down hours earlier. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
