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WATCH: Syrian Army Helicopter Downed In Damascus As Battles Rage On

AFP, REUTERS

Worldcrunch

Rebels shot down a Syrian combat helicopter while it was bombarding the Damascus neighborhood of Jobar.

State television confirmed a chopper crashed near a mosque in the capital, but gave no further details, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it believed it "was hit while it was being used in fighting nearby," AFP reports.

Several amateur videos posted on Youtube show the helicopter engulfed in flames shortly before hitting the ground, while activists can be heard shouting "Allahu Ackbar" (God is Great).

The crash happens as heavy shelling and fighting between the rebel Free Syrian Army and government troops rage in the east of Damascus, a day after the regime was accused of a new massacre: On Sunday, about 320 bodies --including women and children-- were found in houses and basements in the town of Daraya, southwest of Damascus. Most of them were killed "execution-style" by troops, Reuters reports.

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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

That Man In Mariupol: Is Putin Using A Body Double To Avoid Public Appearances?

Putin really is meeting with Xi in Moscow — we know that. But there are credible experts saying that the person who showed up in Mariupol the day before was someone else — the latest report that the Russian president uses a doppelganger for meetings and appearances.

screen grab of Putin in a dark down jacket

During the visit to Mariupol, the Presidential office only released screen grabs of a video

Russian President Press Office/TASS via ZUMA
Anna Akage

Have no doubt, the Vladimir Putin we’re seeing alongside Xi Jinping this week is the real Vladimir Putin. But it’s a question that is being asked after a range of credible experts have accused the Russian president of sending a body double for a high-profile visit this past weekend in the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

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Reports and conspiracy theories have circulated in the past about the Russian leader using a stand-in because of health or security issues. But the reaction to the Kremlin leader's trip to Mariupol is the first time that multiple credible sources — including those who’ve spent time with him in the past — have cast doubt on the identity of the man who showed up in the southeastern Ukrainian city that Russia took over last spring after a months-long siege.

Russian opposition politician Gennady Gudkov is among those who confidently claim that a Putin look-alike, or rather one of his look-alikes, was in the Ukrainian city.

"Now that there is a war going on, I don't rule out the possibility that someone strongly resembling or disguised as Putin is playing his role," Gudkov said.

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