Russia's bloodiest single loss in Syria happened today

Five soldiers die when a helicopter is shot down outside Aleppo

On Monday, August 1, in the Syrian province of Idlib, a Russian Mi-8 helicopter was shot down, killing all five people aboard. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the helicopter had delivered humanitarian supplies to Aleppo and was returning to Russia's Hmeymin air base. Today's incident marks Russia's largest one-time loss in its entire intervention in Syria.

Militants in Syria shot down a Russian helicopter. The military-transport Mi-8 was en route from Aleppo to Russia's Hmeymin air base. On board were five people: three crewmembers and two officers who worked for the Russian center now coordinating reconciliation talks between Syria's warring groups. (The center was established on February 23, 2016, in the framework of ceasefire talks with groups opposed to Bashar al-Assad's regime.) The helicopter was returning from a humanitarian mission and was fired upon from the ground. Russian defense officials say the pilots spent their last moments steering the helicopter clear of populated areas, in order to avoid greater loss of life. Photos and videos from the wreckage appear to show that the helicopter crashed in the desert. Almost nothing of the helicopter remained, after the crash. It's been reported that this helicopter previously evacuated from Aleppo a 10-year-old girl named Sirdru Zaarur, who lost both her legs in a recent attack. She's now getting medical attention at a hospital in Moscow.

Militants found the wreckage and desecrated the Russian soldiers' remains. Shortly after the attack, videos started appearing on Twitter evidently showing people jumping up and down on the bodies of the Mi-8's killed crewmembers. According to Moscow, the area where the helicopter was shot down is controlled by Syria's so-called “moderate opposition.”

Throughout Russia's intervention in Syria, 19 servicemen have now been killed. Only five of these casualties occurred during the active phase of Moscow's military campaign, which lasted from late September 2015 until March 2016. Most of the losses have come in recent months, after Russia withdrew its main armed contingent from Syria, and the Syrian government reached an unsteady ceasefire with opposition forces in order to concentrate on fighting ISIS and other radical Islamist groups.

The Russian and Syrian governments are running a humanitarian-aid campaign in Aleppo. Since the end of last week, there have been four “humanitarian corridors” organized, where residents and militants in Aleppo who have decided to throw down their weapons can leave the city safely. Enemies of Bashar al-Assad's regime argue that the government is using Russian military support to cleanse Aleppo. Officials in the United Nations say humanitarian operations like this should be administered by the appropriate organizations (the UN and humanitarian NGOs), and by not Russian and Syrian soldiers, in order to be confident that the city's residents are leaving voluntarily and that they're receiving all the necessary assistance.