On Tuesday's morning on 6 August 2013 and after almost ten months of besieging, FSyA (consisting of various battalions and brigades) could conquer the regime's last castle in the far north of Aleppo's county. This achievement could be considered one of the biggest in this month, considering that this military base has been converted from an airfield to a spot where all remaining regime's units of the northern county of Aleppo have gathered in, showing a huge resistance to the continues FSyA's trials to invade it. Filtrating this spot, will allow now some units those are highly experienced in besieging air force bases, to be dispatched to Kweres AFB.
Above, FSyA units standing in front of Mi-8 with serial 54.
Mennegh or Mennekh airbase, which is around 32Km to the north of Aleppo city, and just 12Km far from the nearest Syrian/Turkish border point, was one of the major training air bases in Syria since the formation of the SyAAF. Until late 1990's it was -beside the helicopters- the home base of MBB 223 Flamingo's. Also, the PAC Mushshak's were based there when they were first delivered to SyAAF before shifting them to Kweres airbase.
Well, for better understanding, I have prepared this key plan in order to locate and count the remaining Mi-8's in this base (note that all helo's here are Mi-8's, no Mi-17's at all).
Referring to the footage of various videos and photographs, I could count 14 Mi-8's in this base, among them, there are 7 units let's say they are 'Intact'. Intact here, means the fuselage is kinda safe, there could be some broken glass, bullets penetrated the fuselage, but overall, the helicopter overall still might be overhauled (extreme overhaul would be required here).
Aside those, there are 6 Mi-8's completely Knocked-Out, while only one left boom-less.
Starting our photo tour with the Mi-8 with serial 54, that one was seen in some videos being inspected by FSyA units, also being played with as a 'BUS' !!
Another shot for the same.
In this pre-final-attack photo, the Mi-8 with serial 54 is seen at the background, while we can read the serial 52 in white written on the first one.
Photo for the one with serial 52 from the opposite side.
Referring to the 'Key Plan' map, there is another 'Intact' Mi-8 to the next of the one with serial 52. Unfortunately, the serial is not readable at all here.
The third Mi-8 after those two, carries the serial 26 or 46 (I believe it is 46 more).
The most important Mi-8 in this airbase, is the one with serial 81 (1281). This was the private helicopter of the commander of Mennegh air base, the brigadier-general Ali Salim Mahmoud.
Here is a photo for the same been taken before overriding the base.
The same Mi-8 can be seen here to the right. In this photo we can see as well two knocked-out Mi-8's, one beside the intact one in the main tarmac infront of the airbase headquarter, the second is on a runway (as stipulated in the key map).
Closer photo for the Mi-8 damaged on the main tarmac.
In this photo, we can see a line of Mi-8's (some are still intact) on the SW/NE runway.
A pre-override photo shows the Mi-8's with serials 52, unknown, 46 (from right to left).
Another pre-override shot for three Mi-8's.
Another photo here shows the Mi-8 with serial 26 to the right.
One of the knocked out Mi-8's.
Another knocked out Mi-8 side by side to an intact one, this is a pre-override photo.
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