Russian plane crash kills 39; air strikes continue
BEIRUT — A Russian military cargo plane crashed near an air base in Syria on Tuesday, killing all 39 Russian servicemen on board in a blow to Russian operations in Syria. The Russian military quickly insisted the AN-26 plane was not shot down and blamed the crash on a technical error.
Meanwhile, shelling near the rebel-held eastern suburbs of Damascus killed dozens of people over the past 24 hours as President Bashar Assad’s government, supported by the Russian military, pushed its assault on the capital’s rebel-held suburbs. International aid workers on a rare humanitarian mission inside the besieged area described dramatic scenes of rescuers trying to pull corpses from the rubble of buildings and children who hadn’t seen daylight in 15 days.
The aid mission on Monday to the area known as eastern Ghouta was cut short after the government shelling escalated while the aid workers were still inside, calling into question future aid shipments to the encircled region, the last major opposition stronghold near the capital.
Opposition activists and a war monitor said 80 people were killed Monday — the deadliest day since the U.N. Security Council demanded a 30day cease-fire for Syria — and at least nine were killed Tuesday.
Monday’s aid shipment was the first to enter eastern Ghouta amid weeks of a crippling siege and a government assault that has killed some 800 civilians since Feb. 18.
The United Nations said air strikes and shelling in eastern Ghouta continued for hours while the convoy was unloading supplies.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday’s plane crash occurred just 1,600 feet from the runway of Syria’s Hemeimeem military base. It said the plane did not come under fire, adding it would conduct a full investigation.