Video: Russian soldier’s body dragged through dirt after chopper shot down in Syria

The Mi-8 helicopter was shot down in Idlib province while returning to the air base on Syria’s coast after delivering humanitarian goods.

Moscow

: A Russian Mi-8 transport helicopter was shot down in opposition rebel-held territory in Syria’s Idlib province killing 5 crew members onboard. This is the deadliest incident for Russian military since its entry into Syria’s five-year-ling civil war in September 2015.

Videos uploaded online by Syrian opposition activists show the burning wreckage of a Russian helicopter in footage seemingly taken in the first few moments after the helicopter crashed. In a purpoted video, a rocket pod can be seen next to the wreckage. People standing nearby are seen taking cellphone photos and shouting “Allahu Akbar,” or God is great in Arabic.

The helicopter appears to have broken up as it crashed, its tail can be seen lying separately from the aircraft’s body in flames. In other videos, the body of one purported Russian soldier is seen being dragged by the legs while an unidentified person stands on the body of another soldier, also purportedly Russian.

The Mi-8 helicopter was shot down in Idlib province while returning to the Russian air base on Syria’s coast after delivering humanitarian goods to the city of Aleppo, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. The helicopter had three crew members and two officers deployed with the Russian center at the Hemeimeem air base on the Syrian coast.

Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the Russians “died heroically because they tried to move the aircraft away so to minimize losses on the ground.”

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Idlib province has a strong presence of fighters both for the al-Qaida branch in Syria known as the Nusra Front and other groups fighting against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces. The Nusra Front announced last week that it was changing its name and relinquishing ties with al-Qaida in an attempt to undermine a potential U.S. and Russian air campaign against its fighters.

The group is part of a coalition of insurgent groups called Jaish al-Fateh, or Army of Conquest, which has captured most of Idlib.

Monday’s helicopter downing was the deadliest for the Russians since Moscow began carrying out airstrikes in Syria in support of Assad’s forces last September.

In July, two Russian airmen were killed in the central Homs province when their Mi-25 helicopter was shot down by what the Defense Ministry said were Islamic State fighters.

An Mi-28N helicopter gunship crashed near Homs in April, killing both crew members, but the Russian military said there was no evidence it came under fire.

A Russian warplane was shot down by a Turkey along the Syrian border in November, and one of the two pilots was shot and killed from the ground after ejecting.