Russian helicopter shot down in Syria

A picture taken on August 1, 2016 reportedly shows Syrian rebels gathering around the wreckage of a Russian Mi-8 military transport helicopter after it was shot down along the administrative border between Idlib province, northwestern Syria and neighbouring Aleppo. Russia’s defence ministry announced the downing of the helicopter, which it said was carrying three crew and two officers and said that all five people on board were assumed dead. The attack came as Syrian opposition fighters and their jihadist allies battled government forces outside Aleppo in a bid to ease the regime’s siege of rebel-held parts of the northern city.