August 28, 2012: A Syrian military helicopter came down under fire and in flames
in Damascus on Monday as President Bashar al-Assad's air force bombarded rebel-held
districts in the capital and in Aleppo. State television confirmed a helicopter had
crashed in Damascus but gave no details. Opposition activists said rebels had shot
it down. Opposition video footage showed a crippled aircraft burning up and crashing
into a built-up area, sending up a pillar of oily black smoke. A day after his
enemies accused Assad's troops and sectarian militia of massacring hundreds of people
in the town of Daraya near Damascus, the possible shooting down of the helicopter,
the latest of several such successes claimed by lightly armed rebel fighters, bolstered
morale. But, witnesses said, even more intense army bombardments followed. Elsewhere
in Syria, victims of the war continue to plead for help. The Catholic relief organisation,
Aid to the Church in Need, is appealing for aid for a Syrian village near the border
with Lebanon. Msgr. Waldemar Cisło of the Polish branch of Aid to the Church in need,
is in Beirut. With Caritas Lebanon, they’re working to provide relief: “The Pontifical
Association Aid to the Church in Need is calling to support the surrounded and besieged
people in a small Syrian village on the border with Lebanon where 12000 people are
cut off from the rest of the world. Msgr. Cisło said the need is urgent: “Now
we call upon the people of Poland and other countries to support this project of providing
food and other goods to assist the people in their survival. The situation is very
urgent and we need all the support you could provide for us. We ask you to pray for
those people and for those who support them; and to those of you who can and wish
to contribute, please do not hesitate to do so on the account of Aid to the Church
in Need.”