Rebels down Syrian helicopter over Damascus

A Syrian fighter jet fired two rockets on Monday at targets on the eastern edge of the capital Damascus, opposition activists said.   

Video footage taken by activists showed a fighter jet swooping on a built-up area. An explosion is heard and a voice says: "It is firing rockets."      

Earlier today, a video posted on the internet showed the helicopter engulfed in flames shortly before it hit the ground in a neighborhood north east Damascus, across Al-Ghofran mosque.                      
The citizens told REUTERS that opposition forces downed a helicopter related to the Syrian army.                    

Syrian army shelling and helicopter attacks on the outskirts of Damascus killed at least 32 people on Monday, opposition activists said.   

Six of the dead were killed in the Damascus suburb of Jobar, where activists said a Syrian helicopter was downed earlier in the day, they said.   

Footage released by opposition campaigners showed 20 bodies on the floor of a mosque in the adjacent neighbourhood of Zamalka, including three children.   

Activists said the rest of the casualties were reported killed in helicopter and mortar bombardment on residential areas in the suburbs of Irbin, Harasta, Kfar Batna and Muleiha, in the east and northeastern outskirts of the capital.                              


International positions     

French President Francois Hollande warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday that any use of the country's chemical weapons would be a legitimate justification for a military intervention.   

"With our partners we remain very vigilant regarding  preventing the use of chemical weapons, which for the international community would be a legitimate reason for direct intervention," Hollande said during an annual foreign policy speech to French ambassadors.

For his part, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was shocked by reports of a massacre in a town close to Syria's capital and condemned it as "an appalling and brutal crime" that should be independently investigated immediately, his spokesman said on Monday.   

Syrian opposition activists accused President Bashar al-Assad's army on Sunday of massacring hundreds of people in the town of Daraya, which government forces recaptured from rebels.


For the full LBCI report, watch the video above.


REUTERS/AP/LBCI