Tension in Syria’s Latakia province is at breaking point, a video emerging that purports to show the moment Syrian rebels decimated a Russian rescue helicopter.

In the wake of yesterday’s Russian plane shot down by Turkey (video HERE) helicopters were sent in to rescue the pilots, who parachuted to safety before the plane went down. The Telegraph reports:

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Syrian insurgent group, recipient of US Tow missiles, said its fighters hit the helicopter with an anti-tank missile while it was in the air and put out the video showing the helicopter being blown up after one of its fighters struck it with another missile.

Rami Abdulrahman from the Observatory, which tracks the conflict in Syria though a wide network of sources, said at least 10 people were on the helicopter when it was hit by the insurgents. However, they were all evacuated when it landed and before the missile destroyed it.

I don’t imagine the fact that no one we killed in the attack will do much to put Vladimir Putin’s mind at ease, and we might be witnessing what will soon become a major escalation in violence between two countries with an already frosty relationship.

[source:telegraph]