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On February 3, militants of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra) shot down a Russian Su-25 attack aircraft with a MANPAD, over the village of Khan al-Sabil in the Syrian province of Idlib. The attack aircraft was on a combat patrol, carrying out airstrikes on facilities belonging to the terrorist group in the area of Saraqib.
The warplane’s pilot, Major Roman Filipov ejected before the plane crashed. Injured and surrounded, Filipov fought with the militants on the ground. During the fight, he fired at least 40 rounds from his Stechkin automatic pistol at the enemies. Then, Filipov allowed the militants to approach him, shouted “This is for our boys!” and blew himself up using a hand grenade. This explosion likely killed or injured a few militants.
Following the incident, the Russian Aerospace Forces carried out a massive strike on the area where the militants downed the warplane and where they attempted to capture its pilot. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the strike killed at least 30 militants.
With help of Turkey, Filipov’s body was handed over to Russia and was brought to the country on February 6. Major Filipov was posthumously awarded the title of the Hero of Russia, the highest honorary title of the Russian Federation.
According to the local sources, Russia deployed additional units of the Special Forces at frontlines in Syria following the shootdown of the Su-25. It appears that the incident triggered an increase of both ground and air aspects of the Russian military involvement in the Idlib operation. This may become a turning point in the standoff in this part of the country, similar to the operations in Aleppo, Deir Ezzor and Palmyra, when Russia shifted its strategy from regular support ofthe Syrian Army to direct active actions. If this occurs, it would significantly influence the dynamic and the nature of the military operations in Idlib.
This has been a sad day that has though been tinged with pride by the actions of the Lion-hearted Major Roman Filipov.
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There has been an uptick in activity, first the turkish operation, the manpad attack on the su -25, the US airstrike in Deir Ezzor, Israeli attacks in the south. This could be in response to SAA activity in Idlib, but there could be something else happening, some form of coordination where in a typical fashion anti Assad forces coordinate their strikes, to distract and confuse Syrian leadership.
Nothing new..Turkey, USA, Israel..are enemies of Al Assad and the Idlib operation means the end of their terrorist boys in Syria and the V day for Al Assad!..thas why they try to make noise…but nothing else!
Not really Trukey, anymore, since Astana.
“If we find them in the shithouse, we’ll kill them in the shithouse.” — Vladimir Putin, President of Russian Federation
the Isralies are at it again. until the Russians stop them.
This is a complicated issue.
One can comment on this from a lot of different sides/perspectives.
Let me simplify this. The pilot was bombing either rebellions or, more likely, civillians in Idlib. RuAF pilots have inflicted massive lossess on both rebels and on Idlib civillians, the family of the Idlib rebels.
As such, one can understand not taking any of those murderers prisoner when his plane was being downed by rebels.
On the other hand, it seems the man understood the reaction he and his collegues were reaping upon themselves and fought bravely at the end.
Maybe it would be better if RuAF were to prevent bombing civillians as the main target. Just an idea.
You’ve to be pretty retarded or a paid troll to say it’s “more likely” the bombing targets are civilians.
If there is a 10% chance that an abortion banning terrorist is home with his family, and another 10% chance that the family cleaned weapons or dug ditches for the terrorists, then the house is a legitimate military target.
What you suggest is a warcrime, regular armies never should to that as there would be no difference to terrorists then.
There never was a tactical difference. The difference is in the cause they are fighting for. They are terrorists because they want to ban ABORTION! Not for any tactic.
The Israeli point of view. Unlike Russia, Israel targets bomb shelters where mothers and children are concentrated.
Funny thing is that I see all these jihadist videos posted of bombings and they are full of chattering, bearded, allah akhbaring men with arms. Better to have them killed in Syria than in Holland don’t you think?
It actually is very simple: You fight in a war and don’t want to get your family killed: stay away from your family or you make them a target. If you have your wives and kids on your base or camp they will get bombed. If you but your base in a village it will get bombed, if you don’t want civilians to die evacuate them to a save place.
The other side then of course has the option to try to avoid civilian casualties as good as possible or do not care at all. I think in Syria there is a mixed approach being done on that but in the end sooner or later as a fighter you will get bombed or shot at and you better by then told all civilians to stay away from where you are.
If one fails to do any of these it is likely that civilian deaths are intended for propaganda usage or like in Stalingrad where the Idea was not to allow civilians to flee so the soldiers are more motivated to fight for the city. Either way it’s a war crime.
R.i.p
40 rounds? How many clips did he carry
APS, Stechkin’s pistol has 20 rounds mag capacity.
@gsi2018:disqus An APS auto-pistol holds 20 rounds in its magazine, and Russian pilots carry four mags on their vest and fifth in the pistol itself.
Here’s the video (go forward in the video at 06:16 time) where a Russian pilot dubbed “Igor” presents his equipment (grenades too) at Khmeimim air base. https://youtu.be/QnB0hZfE-Go?t=6m16s
Time to give the SAA plenty of MANPAD’s. Once a few F16’s have been downed the enthusiasm of the US and Israel to bomb the SAA will be somewhat diminished.
Take lesson from useful items of instruction and shining indications. Be cautioned by effective items of warning. Get benefit from preaching and admonition. It is as though the claws of death are pressed in you, the connection of hope and desires has been cut asunder, hard affairs have befallen you and your march is towards the place where everyone has to go, namely death. Hence, “with every person there is a driver and a witness” (Qur’an, 50:21). The driver drives him towards resurrection while the witness furnishes evidence about his deeds. https://youtu.be/LSPXpzqrP8o
Savage monsters.
After attacking areas with civilians and killing scores of them, the Major (RIP) was to be taken prisoner to be exchanged but he chose to die needlessly.