Military Chopper Drops Barrel Bombs Over Latakia

Footage filmed aboard a Syrian helicopter, released on May 21, shows uniformed pilots dropping barrel bombs near the border between Latakia and Idlib provinces. The video, described as being from March 2015, was acquired and posted by the Syrian media activist group SMO Syria. It shows a helicopter crew filming themselves on board an aircraft loaded with two barrel bombs.

A navigator can be seen verifying coordinates using a GPS, which has been matched to al-Thawra dam lake, near the coastal city of Latakia.

At 1.57 in the video two barrel bombs are released over a mountain road. Some buildings are evident at the location, though it is not clear what is being targeted.

The lake and the strike site are situated just west of the contested Idlib province, where activists have reported hundreds of barrel bomb drops.

At 2.39 into the video, the footage is edited to show the wreck of a helicopter. The same crash site appears in this report from March 2015, described as an army aircraft brought down by rebels, and from which the footage was seized.

Al-Arabiya reported on the crash in March, here. It said a Syrian Air Force pilot was captured in Jebel al-Zawya, Idlib. Jebel al-Zawya is 50km -from the strike site. Credit: SMO Syria