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pilots was Albert Davidyan
Russian military jet had crashed in Syria on Thursday killing both of its pilots, including commander Albert Davidyan.
Major Albert Davidyan, Armenian by origin, was one of the pilots of a the military jet that crashed off the coast of Syria, near the city of Jableh in Latakia province, Vesti reported quoting Mash.
Russian Defense Ministry said two crew members had tried in vain to save the plane until the last moment.
An Egyptian helicopter gunship (file photo)
Egypt has reportedly sent 18 helicopter pilots to Syria to support the war-torn Arab nation in its fight against terrorism, and mulls more deployments to the same end early next year.
On Thursday, Lebanese As-Safir paper cited “well-informed Arab sources” as reporting that Egypt had dispatched the pilots to an airbase in the western Syria city of Hama on November 12, adding that the contingent was joined by four senior Egyptian military figures upon arrival.
It added that two Egyptian major generals had also been operating at the Armed Forces Staff Headquarters in the Syrian capital Damascus since last month. They have been touring frontlines, including the “Southern Front” in the city of Quneitra.
The daily cited one source “close to the Syria file” as saying that a large deployment of Egyptian troops will arrive in Syria in late January 2017 to take part in military operations “not limited to air support at Hama airbase.”
Major General Ali Mamlouk, the head of Syria’s National Security Bureau, had paid an official one-day visit to the Egyptian capital, Cairo, in October and held talks with senior Egyptian intelligence officials.
The two sides reached an agreement on “coordinating political standpoints” and improving bilateral “cooperation in the combat against terrorism” during the talks, official Syrian Arab News Agency reported at the time.
A month earlier, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry had announced that Cairo and Riyadh did not share common attitudes vis-à-vis the ongoing crisis in Syria. Shoukry had said that terrorist groups cannot remain in Syria if peace is to be achieved in the conflict-stricken Arab country.
While Saudi Arabia and its allies in the Persian Gulf region, particularly Qatar, are financially and militarily supporting the extremists fighting to unseat Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Egyptian officials have reiterated that the crisis in Syria can only be solved through political means.
On Tuesday, Egyptian President Abdul-Fattah al-Sisi said he supported the Syrian army in its war against terrorists.
“Our priority is to support national armies, for example in Libya to assert control over Libyan territories and deal with extremist elements. The same with Syria and Iraq,” he said.
Despite having received billions of dollars in aid from Saudi Arabia, Cairo has refused to align itself with Riyadh on issues concerning Syria and also stopped short of joining the kingdom’s March 2015-present war on Yemen, which has killed thousands.
Cairo’s decision to play a role on the battlefield against terrorists, including Daesh, in Syria comes at a time when Egypt is also battling the Takfiri outfit’s branch at home.
Valayat Sinai, previously known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, as the group is named, has been leading a deadly campaign of violence against both Egyptian security forces and civilians in Cairo and the restive Sinai Peninsula.
On Thursday, more than a dozen people, including security forces, were killed in Sinai in two separate terror attacks.
There have been no claim of responsibility for the attacks, but Egyptian officials usually blame the Daesh-linked militants for such acts of violence.
The bomber was shot down last November. Turkey claimed the Russian plane entered its airspace, while Russia categorically denied these accusations.
“Two Turkish pilots who shot down a Russian Su-24 near the Syrian border were taken into custody, according to a senior Turkish official speaking on condition of anonymity,” Bloomberg reports, citing a high-level Turkish official.
It was reported earlier that at least one of the pilot’s responsible for downing the Russian jet took part in last week’s failed Turkish coup attempt.
The shooting down of the jet led Moscow led to a crisis in relations between Moscow and Ankara. Russian President Vladimir Putin described the incident as a “stab in the back” and imposed a number of restrictive measures against Ankara, repeatedly calling on the Turkish government to apologize and cover any material losses to the pilot’s family.
Putin signed a decree last month that lifted sanctions against Turkey, following an apology from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(sputniknews) A Russian Aerospace Forces Mi-28N Havoc helicopter crashed near the city of Homs in Syria, killing both pilots, the Russian Defense Ministry’s press service reported Tuesday.
“According to a report from the crash site, the helicopter was not shot down, the press service’s statement said.”
The crash occurred at 22:29 GMT on Monday.
“Two crewmembers were killed. The bodies of the dead pilots were removed [from the crash site] during search and rescue operations and are currently at the Hmeymim Airbase.”
According to the ministry, the reasons behind the crash are yet to be determined. A task force has been sent to the site of the incident to investigate the crash.
President Vladimir Putin, the Russian Supreme Commander-in-Chief, has been informed about the crash, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
“Obviously, the commander in chief is notified first of such emergency incidents.”
Russia has been conducting a counterterrorist operation in Syria since September 30. On March 14, President Vladimir Putin ordered to withdraw the main part of the air group from Syria.
On November 24, a Turkish F-16 shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber over Syria. One of the pilots was killed by Islamist rebels after ejecting. A Mi-8 helicopter, which had been sent to conduct a search and rescue mission, was damaged by the rebels’ fire, and a naval infantry officer was killed.
The Mi-28N Night Hunter is a modification of the Mi-28 gunship designed for round-the-clock combat operations. It can find and destroy the enemy’s vehicles and manpower.
As the two Russian pilots descended by parachute after the Su-24 jet was downed, both were shot dead by Turkmen forces, Reuters reports citing a deputy commander of a Turkmen brigade in Syria.
“Both of the pilots were dead on retrieval. Our comrades opened fire into the air and they died in the air,” Alpaslan Celik, a deputy commander of a Syrian Turkmen brigade said.
He was speaking near the Syrian village of Yamadi, according to Reuters. Celik held what he said was a piece of a pilot’s parachute.
A graphic video posted earlier on social media purported to show a Russian pilot lying on the ground surrounded by a group of men praising Allah.
The men reportedly regretted they hadn’t burned him on the spot.
The video was sent by a rebel group operating in the northwestern area of Syria, where groups including the Free Syrian Army are active but Islamic State has no known presence.
Jahed Ahmad, a representative of the 10th Brigade in the Coast, the rebel group that attacked the pilots, told AP that at least one of the Russian pilots was dead upon landing.
A Russian Su-24 bomber was shot down by Turkish fighter jets near the Turkish-Syrian border on Tuesday.
Turkey said it was rightfully acting to defend its sovereignty as the warplane had violated its airspace and hadn’t responded to warnings.
Moscow has denied Turkey’s claims, saying its plane was downed in Syrian airspace, where Russia is conducting an air operation against Islamic State and other terrorists.
Vladimir Putin called Ankara’s actions “a stab in the back delivered by accomplices of the terrorists,” adding that it will have severe consequences for relations between Russia and Turkey.
