Five dead as aid helicopter is blasted out the sky over Syria… as sick videos emerge ‘showing rebels stamping on pilot’s corpse’
Social media images show appear to show armed rebels dragging bodies of the crew through the desert
A RUSSIAN aid helicopter has been shot down over Syria with all five crew feared dead.
The Mi-8 transport chopper was brought down by rebels in the north of the country after delivering supplies to embattled civilians in the city of Aleppo.
The Russian defence ministry confirmed the crash this morning.
Images have begun to emerge on social media of armed rebels dragging the charred bodies of victims through the desert.
In one sickening video, a rebel appears to jump up and down on the back of a dead Russian.
Another half-naked body was filmed being loaded onto the back of a pick-up truck.
Photos emerging of personal belongings, including identification, appeared to suggest there was one woman on board.
Russian forces have been carrying out air strikes on various rebel groups opposed to embattled Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
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It has not been confirmed which group brought down the helicopter, which was returning to Hmeimim base in the Idlib province.
A Kremlin statement confirming the deaths said the crew had "died heroically".
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "As far as we know from the information we've had from the defence ministry, those in the helicopter died, they died heroically, because they were trying to move the aircraft away to minimise victims on the ground."
The Idlib region is a stronghold of the Islamist Al-Nusra Front - a group closely-aligned with Al-Qaeda.
They recently announced their split from Al Qaeda in a bid to ward off further air strikes from allied forces.
The crash is Russia's deadliest since President Vladimir Putin ordered air strikes against Al-Assad's opponents last September.
Since then, a fighter jet pilot was killed when his plane was brought down on the Turkish border last November.
A special forces soldier was hailed as a "hero" after he called in an air strike on himself when he was surrounded by ISIS fighters near the city of Palmyra.
And last month two pilots were killed when ISIS shot down a helicopter near to the ancient city.
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