New videos show Syrian gunship helicopters dropping bombs on Homs and Damascus

The Syrian Arab Air Force gunships, “only” used to fire rockets against the Free Syrian Army (FSyA) so far, have started to drop bombs on Homs and Damascus.

The following video is the last of series recently uploaded to Youtube, showing a Syrian Mil Mi-25 releasing what seems to be a Soviet FAB-250 general purpose bomb on Talbiseh, a small city in northwestern Syria, just 10 km Homs.

Along with drones, choppers seem to be the preferred tool used by Sirya against the FSyA. That’s why the Syrian revolution has put instructions on how to shoot down a regime helicopter on-line.

Recently, footage officially released by the regime showed Mig-21s, Mig-23s and also, Mig-29s and Su-24s firing rockets and dropping bombs, along with Mi-25s, Mi-17s and Gazelle operating at low altitude and firing at mock targets during what looked like a large exercise in the desert.

Most probably to prevent the enforcement of a No Fly Zone (as well as defections by experienced pilots), the only combat planes to be spotted in the Syrian sky over disputed towns, since the beginning of the uprising last year, have been some Mig-21 fighter jets.

About David Cenciotti
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.