A Syrian army helicopter burst into flames over Damascus after being struck by rebel fire on Monday, the first time opposition forces are known to have brought down one of the regime's air assets.
An image grab taken from a video uploaded on YouTube on August 27, 2012 shows a burning Syrian combat helicopter crashing Photo: AFP/GETTY
By Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent
12:03PM BST 27 Aug 2012
Amateur video footage showed rebels shooting at the helicopter as its tail caught fire. It then spun out of control before plummeting to the ground in a ball of fire as rebels celebrated, shouting "God is great".
Rebel fighters said the helicopter had been part of a heavy government assault on the Jobar district of eastern Damascus, which has been under attack since Sunday as part of a regime operation to regain full control of the area.
"It was flying overhead the eastern part of the city and firing all morning," an activist identifying himself as Abu Bakr told the Reuters news agency. "The rebels had been trying to hit [it] for about an hour; finally they did."
Residents in the area said they saw a projectile hit the helicopter before it crashed into a narrow residential street in the neighbouring suburb of Qaboun.
The felling of the helicopter will significantly boost the morale of rebel forces, who have been forced onto the defensive by President Bashar al-Assad's increasing willingness to use air assets, including fighter-jets, against their positions.
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Opposition fighters in eastern Syria last month claimed to have shot down a Russian made MiG fighter, but military experts said it was more likely that the jet had crashed due to a technical malfunction.
State television confirmed that a helicopter had crashed in Damascus, but provided no further details.
The loss of the helicopter did not appear to deter regime forces from pressing ahead with their attack on Jobar and the nearby districts of Zamalka and Irbin, two working class Sunni suburbs in eastern Damascus.
After claiming to have pacified the southern outskirts of the capital last week, including the town of Daraya where opposition activists say they have recovered more than 320 corpses, the regime has shifted its attention to the east of the capital.
Residents in Jobar said that helicopters had dropped fliers on Sunday warning them that they would "face annihilation" if they did not hand over "terrorists" they were accused of sheltering.
Hours later the district came under heavy attack by helicopter gunships and machine-gun fire, residents said.
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