Rebels Claim Downing of Combat Helicopter in Damascus
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
A rebel Free Syrian Army group claimed it had shot down an army helicopter in Damascus on Monday and that the pilot had been killed, a spokesman said.
"It was in revenge for the Daraya massacre," Omar al-Qabooni, a spokesman for the Badr Battalion in Damascus told Agence France Presse via Skype, referring to the reported killing of at least 320 people in a town southwest of Damascus during a five-day government offensive.
He said the rebels had found the body of the pilot after the burning aircraft crashed to the ground in the district of Qaboon during heavy shelling and fierce fighting in the area.
State television said a helicopter crashed without giving more information.
An anti-regime activist who identified herself as Alexia also told AFP via Skype: "It was the Free Syrian Army for sure."
The claims could not be independently verified.
Syrian rebels claimed to have shot down a warplane on August 13 in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it believed the helicopter "was hit while it was being used in fighting nearby."
It reported clashes between troops and the FSA in several areas of Damascus, including Qaboon and the neighboring district of Jubar -- where anti-regime sentiment is strong -- and several nearby towns east of the city.
The violence flared a day after the Observatory reported the discovery of hundreds of bodies in Daraya after what opposition militants said was a "massacre" by government troops.
27 August 2012, 11:30
14
It takes more than a Kalashnikov to bring down a chopper. Is the FSA getting its hands on Stinger-like weapons?
27 August 2012, 18:37
00
Maybe the U.S. is covertly sending equipment to them, like in Afghanistan with the Soviets. With the Americans you never know, they are capable of lying to the whole world and nobody noticing
27 August 2012, 14:40
11
Sometimes the black market does good and does bad but wat I heard was anti aircraft guns I don't know if they hit with a stinger or not cuz the video isn't that clear to me...watching it from my phone
27 August 2012, 15:06
16
Is it Christmas or something? A wonderful present for the rebellion.
27 August 2012, 15:42
04
Jabal, you can gun down a helicopter with anti-aircraft high caliber artillery like the ones mounted on vehicles, they used to call them douchka during the civil war. Those are already in their hands, stingers would be more difficult to get.
27 August 2012, 16:34
02
Are Stingers being smuggled to FSA? Here is a source article from a few days ago that claims they are.
http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/08/17/232739.html
27 August 2012, 17:48
13
The video starts with a puff of white smoke. It needed to start 10 seconds sooner to see if there was a rocket sent up. Either way this is great news. Stingers would change the course of the war. ASSad is done either way. Even the Hezz took a step away from him and are figuring out what to do after he is gone.
27 August 2012, 21:39
01
If they were getting stingers, a lot more helicopters would be going down. This might just be a lucky case for the rebels.
28 August 2012, 04:03
00
We need to wait and see more at which point we can determine the capabilities. The video is very clear that the target fell from a high altitude so either a missile or fault occurred for it to be downed.
