Russian helicopter shot down

5 dead as Russian helicopter shot down in Syria

By Angela Dewan

A Russian helicopter was shot down Monday after delivering aid to the Syrian city of Aleppo, killing all five crew members on board, Russian state media reported.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the Mi-8 helicopter was shot down by ground fire in Idlib province as it returned to base, state TV reported.

"Those who were aboard the helicopter, according to information from the Defense Ministry, have died heroically because they were attempting to steer the machine to minimize the casualties on the ground," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the state-run Sputnik news agency.

An Mi-8 helicopter was downed in Idlib province after carrying aid to Aleppo, Russia state TV reported.

The helicopter downing comes amid deadly fighting in eastern Aleppo, where rebels are trying to break a Syrian government siege in the country's five-year civil war.

Russian warplanes started carrying out airstrikes in Syria in September 2015 in what many Western leaders said was an effort by Moscow to prop up the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Some neighborhoods in Aleppo have been under fire for more than 80 consecutive days, leaving 6,000 people either dead or injured, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights.

The UK-based monitoring group said rebel-held areas in the city's east have faced sustained attack by regime artillery and airstrikes, while rebel and Islamic factions have shelled regime-controlled areas in western neighborhoods.