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Multiple Clips of Syrian Helicopter Crash

By ROBERT MACKEY

In video uploaded to YouTube Monday morning, activists and rebels could be heard rejoicing as a Syrian government helicopter crashed outside Damascus.

As my colleague Steven Erlanger reports, Syrian rebels claimed responsibility for shooting down a government helicopter during fighting in the eastern suburbs of Damascus on Monday.

At least eight video clips uploaded to opposition activist channels on YouTube appeared to show the craft exploding in flames and plunging to the ground in the neighborhood of Qaboun, where Syrian state television reported that a helicopter had crashed.

Video said to have been recorded on Monday on the outskirts of Damascus of a Syrian government helicopter exploding in flames before crashing.

Restrictions on independent reporting inside Syria imp osed by the government of President Bashar al-Assad make it difficult to verify the authenticity of images posted online by opposition activists, but the various clips do appear to show the same event.

Perhaps the clearest images of the helicopter plummeting down were posted by an activist from Saqba, an area about 20 minutes from central Damascus which reportedly slipped from government control some months ago.

Video of a helicopter crash from the SaqbaRavo0 YouTube channel, which documents the uprising against the Syrian government on the outskirts of the capital.

A very brief but dramatic clip of the craft coming down in flames was uploaded to the JobarRev YouTube channel.

Close images of a helicopter crash uploaded to a Syrian opposition activist YouTube channel on Monday.

Another clip, apparently recorded close to the scene of the crash , was posted on the FreeQabon channel.

One of five video clips showing a helicopter crash on Monday outside Damascus posted online by opposition activists.

Later on Monday, video was added to the same channel apparently showing a piece of the helicopter's fuselage on the ground, the smoking wreckage of the craft and gruesome images of what the activists identified as the hand of the dead pilot.

Video said to show the wreckage of a Syrian government helicopter after it crashed outside Damascus on Monday.

Three more distant views of the helicopter's crash, and a photograph of a Free Syrian Army fighter identified as the man who shot it down, were included in a post on the British blogger Eliot Higgins' Brown Moses blog.