Chad rebels say destroyed army helicopter gunship

[tigershark]

Chad rebels say destroyed army helicopter gunship
Sun 20 Jan 2008, 8:57 GMT
N'DJAMENA (Reuters) - Chad's rebels said on Saturday they had shot down an army helicopter gunship which attacked their positions in the east of the landlocked central African country, near the border with Sudan's Darfur region.   The rebel Alliance for National Resistance (ANR), one of several groups of insurgents operating along the Sudanese border, said in a statement it had destroyed the Russian-made MI-24 helicopter near the village of Beda this week using a SAM-7 short-range, ground-to-air missile.    A spokesman for President Idriss Deby's government was not immediately available for comment.   The rebels said Chadian army helicopters had not taken to the skies since then, eliminating one of the government's main tactical advantages.

Full story
http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN032261.html

[Webmaster]

From my non-published to-be-completed Mi-24 section.

The Chad Air Force (Forces Aériennes Tchadiennes) bought two Mi-24Vs from the Ukraine in the summer of 2000. The aircraft carried registrations TT-OAL and TT-OAM and were repainted in a tan/green camouflage. By mid-2001 both Mi-24Vs had run out of service hours and were planned to go back to the Ukraine for overhaul. [Gordon, 2001]

Gordon, Yefim and Dmitriy Komissarov (2001), Mil Mi-24 Hind attack helicopter, Airlife Publishing Ltd, UK.

Assuming the rebels did indeed down a Mi-24 from Chad, this leaves them with just one Hind. Unless they have acquired more examples since then, which is very likely. Any info anyone?