Syrian rebels down government chopper
Freezing weather compounds crisis for displaced
BEIRUT, Feb 15, (AP): A government helicopter was shot down and its crew killed Friday in Syria’s northwest, where a military offensive against opposition fighters is unfolding, a Syrian military official and activists said.
Turkey-backed opposition fighters claimed responsibility for downing the gunship, saying it was targeted in response to the Syrian army’s indiscriminate targeting of civilians.
Videos posted online show a helicopter spiraling downward from the sky, with flames trailing behind as onlookers cheer.
A military official told Syrian state media that the helicopter was hit by a “hostile rocket” in the western countryside of Aleppo province. The unnamed official said the helicopter crashed and its crew was killed.
It was the second time this week that a government helicopter was downed in northwest Syria. Another government helicopter gunship was downed three days earlier, near the village of Nairab.
A Syrian military offensive in the region is seeking to uproot opposition fighters from the last territory they hold.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists on the ground, said the helicopter was downed Friday in the village of Qibtan al-Jebel, north of Aleppo city. It said two crew members were killed and their bodies were found near the site of the crash.
The Turkey-backed National Front for Liberation claimed responsibility, saying it was avenging the killing of civilians. Syria’s military has used helicopters to drop rudimentary barrel bombs on opposition areas throughout its campaign to reclaim territory. Rights groups have documented and criticized their use in the nine-year war.
A military offensive on an opposition-controlled region of northwestern Syria has created one of the worst catastrophes for civilians in the
country’s long-running war, sending hundreds of thousands of people fleeing, many of them sleeping in open fields and under trees in freezing temperatures.
The military campaign in Idlib province and the nearby Aleppo countryside has also killed hundreds of civilians, and a bitter winter has compounded the pain.
The weather has contributed to at least 10 deaths, including four who suffered hypothermia, a family of four that died of suffocation in their tent and two who burned to death when their tent caught fire, according to Mohammed Hallaj, a coordinator for the area’s Response Coordination Group.
Nizar Hamadi, 43, lost his brother and three other family members, including a three-year-old. Their family had been displaced multiple times to escape the swift government offensive, ending up in a settlement made up of rudimentary tents stitched together with sticks and cloth.