It’s a tough day for Moscow. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that Syrian fighters destroyed a Russian helicopter with a missile, shortly after they forced it to make an emergency landing in a nearby government-held area in Syria’s Latakia province.
A Syrian insurgent group, which receives US Tow missiles, said its fighters hit the helicopter with an anti-tank missile while it was in the air and put out a video showing the helicopter being blown up after one of its fighters struck it with another missile.
Rami Abdulrahman from the Observatory said at least 10 people were on the helicopter when it was hit but they were all evacuated when it landed and before the missile destroyed it.
The Guardian reports, In what appears to be a separate incident, another Syrian rebel group - the Free Syrian Army’s First Coastal Division - says it has destroyed a Russia helicopter on Turkmen Mountain, using a TOW anti-tank missile, writes Louisa Loveluck, Middle East Correspondent.
If this incident is confirmed, then the existence of a proxy war with Russia and Iran via American-backed forces in Syria is a reality.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/nov/24/russian-helicopter-shot-down-while-searching-downe/