A Syrian military helicopter was shot down over the last major rebel bastion in northwest Syria on Friday, the second such incident in a week of high tensions with Turkey.
The attack in a region where Turkish troops and Russian-backed government forces have engaged in multiple clashes came as Washington urged Ankara to look to its Western allies in light of Moscow’s actions.
Syrian and Russian forces have pressed a deadly offensive against the shrinking pocket in the country’s northwest since December last year, claiming the lives of nine civilians on Friday.
Photo: AFP
“At approximately 13:40, one of our military helicopters was hit by a hostile missile in the western countryside of Aleppo,” Syrian state news agency SANA said.
“This led the helicopter to crash, killing all crew on board,” it added.
SANA said the aircraft was downed near the town of Urum al-Kubra, where Turkey-backed rebels operate, but did not say who fired the missile.
The Turkey-backed National Liberation Front rebel group claimed responsibility in a statement posted on the Telegram app.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the helicopter’s two pilots were killed.
An AFP correspondent saw the chopper’s mangled remains and the blood-stained fatigues of one of the pilots.
Three days earlier, another Syrian military helicopter was downed over Idlib Governorate, killing at least three crew members.
Turkish media blamed that attack on rebels but the Observatory said Ankara’s troops had fired rockets at the aircraft over the village of Qaminas, southeast of Idlib city.
Turkey did not claim responsibility.
Since December last year, Syrian government forces have pressed a blistering assault on the last major rebel pocket in the northwestern Idlib region and parts of neighboring Aleppo and Latakia provinces.
Eight civilians including three children were killed in the bombardment on Friday, the Observatory said, adding that five died in Russian raids near the almost deserted city of Atareb.
Government forces are within 5km of the city, the monitor said.
The assault has sparked the largest wave of displacement in the nine-year conflict, with 800,000 people fleeing since December last year, the UN said.
Among them, about 82,000 people are sleeping rough in sub-zero temperatures.
European members of the UN Security Council on Friday called for an immediate end to the Idlib offensive to save lives.
“We demand that the parties, especially the Syrian regime and its allies, immediately end their military offensive, establish a genuine and lasting ceasefire,” permanent member France and nonpermanent members Belgium, Estonia and Germany said.
“There can be no sustainable military solution to the Syrian conflict,” they said in a joint statement.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese