Video: Kurds shoot down Turkish Helicopter gunship.

(Afrin)  The Turks when they invaded the eastern Kurdish enclave inside Syria last month, didn't seem to realise why ISIS at the height of its power never managed to take it.

Picture taken from Le Beck

Well after a couple of weeks of poor going against a lightly armed Kurdish militia they must be feeling how the Chinese felt in 1979 when they presumed that invading Vietnam would be easy.  As in Vietnam the terrain is mountainous and the people who live there (the Kurds) are a hardy people used to fighting , which is why the Turks have made every little inroads into the area by foot, however they do control the air, which they are using to their advantage. One of their primary weapons is the  TAI/AgustaWestland T129 ATAK  which is a  multi-role, all-weather attack helicopter based on the Italian Agusta A129 Mangusta which for some reason looks exactly the same:

The thing is, whilst the T-129 is pretty good, a lot of its advantages are kind of offset by flying between mountains where the enemy can take potshots at you from above and the side. Which appears to be what has happened this morning when the Kurds shot down one of a pair of patrolling T-129s:

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#Afrin: Video reportedly shows the moment the Turkish helicopter was downed by #PKK militants. #OperationOliveBranch pic.twitter.com/ggSHUFuM4I

— MENA Observer (@middleeastwars) February 10, 2018

Speaking in Istanbul this morning, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated that such losses were expected during times of war. He also warned those who shot down the Helicopter that they would  surely pay a heavy price for it.

"We might lose one helicopter, but they will pay a much heavier price."