For almost a month, rebels have tried unsuccessfully to break the siege by seizing back control of the Castello Road, a major road into opposition-held east Aleppo that links to routes into rebel-held territory to the north and west of the city.
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Syrian government forces and Russia’s military say they are carrying out a humanitarian operation to relieve the northern city of Aleppo and have dropped leaflets telling fighters to surrender and civilians to leave.
Government and Russian air strikes on Tuesday also targeted areas across the outskirts of the city and in the Aleppo countryside, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
This helicopter downing comes amidst fatal fighting and the humanitarian crisis in the eastern part of Aleppo, where some rebels are attempting to break the Syrian government’s siege.
About 2,50,000 civilians are believed to be living in the rebel-controlled territory and their plight has drawn growing worldwide alarm.
However, a covert “Plan B” for Syria advocated by USA military experts involved the supply of Manpads to “moderate” rebels to counter Russia’s efforts to support Damascus.
Russian Federation is a key backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and is supporting pro-government forces with air strikes.
On Tuesday, residents of the rebel-held parts of Aleppo returned to burning tires, sending up big plumes of black smoke in the hope of preventing airstrikes.
“It is critical, obviously, that Russian Federation restrain both itself and the Assad regime from conducting offensive operations, just as it is our responsibility to get the opposition to refrain from engaging in those operations”, he told journalists.
Rudskoi also said Russia fully supports the United Nations initiative on “improving the modalities of the Russia-Syrian humanitarian operation in Aleppo”.
Last week Russian Federation and Syria launched a humanitarian aid plan for the 30,000 civilians trapped in the besieged city of Aleppo.
Russian airpower began supporting Assad late last year, an intervention that tipped the balance of the war in Assad’s favor, eroding gains the rebels had made that year.
As many as 1,400 people were killed when several opposition-controlled areas in the suburbs around Damascus were struck by rockets containing the chemical agent sarin on August 21, 2013.
“As far as we know from the information we’ve had from the Defense Ministry, those in the helicopter died”.
MOSCOW (AP) A Russian transport helicopter was shot down in Syria on Monday and all five people onboard were killed, the Kremlin said, in the deadliest single incident for the Russian military since its involvement in Syria’s civil war. “If they lose, it will be hard for them to launch a new assault to break the siege”, Abdel Rahman said.
Residents and rebels on the ground had dismissed the reported weekend crossings as “lies”.
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No group has claimed responsibility for downing the helicopter.
