Russia’s defense ministry said a Russian helicopter was shot down near Saraqeb on Monday, killing all five people on board, in the biggest officially acknowledged loss of life for Russian forces since they started operations in Syria.
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It was returning from delivering humanitarian aid to the besieged city of Aleppo, the defence ministry said.
The helicopter had three crew members and two officers deployed with the Russian center at the Hemeimeem air base on the Syrian coast, Russian officials said.
The Kremlin expressed condolences Monday after the Ministry of Defense announced that its Mi-8 helicopter had crashed in Idlib after it was shot down.
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. It is believed that as many as 200,000 to 300,000 people remain trapped in the rebel held region of Aleppo. However the helicopter wreckage was seen to have contained a rocket pod in video uploaded by Syrian rebel forces.
Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the Russians “died heroically” because they tried to veer away from inhabited areas to avoid civilian deaths.
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said six children and eight women were among those killed in two of the capital’s government-controlled neighbourhoods. This is the third time a Russian helicopter has been shot down since Russia began its airstrike campaign against ISIS last September.
According to Rudskoi, Russian air forces actively supported government troops to repel enemy attacks and carried out selective strikes on militant positions.
Rebel groups are staging an offensive to try to break the siege.
No one has so far claimed responsibility for the downing, and Russian Federation hasn’t indicated who might be behind it.
In one video, men, some of them armed, were shown standing near the wreckage taking cellphone photos, some cheering and shouting “Allahu Akbar”, or God is great in Arabic.
At least 30 civilians have been killed since Sunday in opposition bombardment of government-held southwestern districts of Aleppo, the monitor said.
The downing of the helicopter has brought the toll for Russian soldiers killed in the Syrian conflict to 18.
United Nations envoy Staffan di Mistura said last Friday that the city’s food supplies would last three weeks.
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The UK-based watchdog group said that intense battles, however, are still raging in southern Aleppo.
