FILE IMAGE. Source: rferl.org
The Ahrar al-Sham militant group claimed on March 27 that it had downed a helicopter near the village Salma in the Al-Akrad Mountain in the northern part of the Syrian province of Latakia.
#عاجل#أحرار_الشام#اللاذقية
إسقاط طائرة مروحية قرب سلمى إثر استهدافها بمضادات أحرار الشام في جبل الأكراد بريف اللاذقية pic.twitter.com/2gEVQ8wt7o— حركة أحرار الشام (@AhrarAl_Sham) March 27, 2017
Militants used heavy machine guns to down the helictoper.
There is no confirmed information which type helicopter was downed. No videos or photos from the crash site were provided yet.
According to media activists, the Russian Aerospace Forces started deliviring of airstrikes at the crash site following the incident.
UPD: The Russian Defense Ministry officially denied rumors that militants had downed a Russian helicopter in the area.
Well shit I hope it ain’t true
Yeah, well, helicopters will always be more vulnerable then jet aircraft, as they can’t fly as high or as fast.
True
What type of AA is that in picture.?
Looks like a gun taken out of Shilka (water cooling on top of the barrel is it’s unique feature). I’ve seen videos of Shilkas with missing guns earlier. I guess this is where they ended up.
Thank you. Any news whether Rebels use tracking point system for moving targets? In tracking point computer fires weapon after manually aligned based on computer data.
On jihadmobiles like this, no. On Shilka, guns have radar guidance, but I’ve only seen them being used against ground targets. Maybe they don’t have trained operators, maybe Russian counter-measures render them useless.
It’s common-place for these scum to claim they’ve shot down Russian aircraft, but the vast majority turn out to be fake news. If it wasn’t just another bogus piece of propaganda they would have shown photos or video by now.
Assuming that this is true…the question is …why are these group of terrorists in the area ? I means, this area would must be cleaned since the beginning when Russia started to break the terrorists because is somewhat close to the air base, isn’t it ? I know the unofficial justification like, there are not enough military people, tiger force is busy in other place, bla bla bla. For me is just incredible that close to Damasco and russian air base are terrorists, and Russia and Syria are not be able to clean these areas.