Russian military chopper shot down in Syria: ministry

Three crew members and two officers who were on board are reportedly dead

MOSCOW: A Russian military helicopter with five people on board was shot down Monday over the Syrian province of Idlib, the Russian defence ministry 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," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

The defence ministry had earlier said there were five people on board.



"A Russian Mi-8 military transport helicopter was shot down from the ground after delivering humanitarian aid to Aleppo," the defence ministry said in a statement quoted by Russian news agencies. "Three crew members and two officers... were on board," it said, indicating that their fate was unclear.