Islamic State training to fly captured fighter jets in Syria: monitor

 Written by : Mohamed Abdel Fattah

Oct 17, 2014

Iraqi pilots who have joined the Islamic State in Syria are training members of the group to fly three captured fighter jets, a group monitoring the war said Friday,

Last August three fighter jets captured when it took control of military airports in Syria’s Aleppo and Raqqa, provinces., which are believed to be MiG-21 and MiG-23 jets, are capable of flying although it is unclear if they are equipped with missiles, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

U.S. Central Command said it was not aware of Islamic State flying jets in Syria.

Rami Abdul Rahman, the monitoring group’s founder, claims former Iraqi officers who served under Saddam Hussein have been training the Iraqi militants to fly the aircraft, the BBC reported.

“People saw the flights, they went up many times from the airport and they are flying in the skies outside the airport and coming back,” Mr Rahman said.

U.S. Central Command said it was not aware of Islamic State flying jets in Syria , if the report is confirmed, this would be the first time it has been able to pilot warplanes.

“We're not aware of (ISIS) conducting any flight operations in Syria or elsewhere,” U.S. Central Command spokesman Colonel Patrick Ryder said.

“We continue to keep a close eye on (ISIS) activity in Syria and Iraq and will continue to conduct strikes against their equipment, facilities, fighters and centers of gravity, wherever they may be.”

U.S-led forces are bombing Islamic State bases in Syria and Iraq. The group has regularly used weaponry captured from the Syrian and Iraqi armies and has overrun several military bases

This week has seen an increased number of U.S. airstrikes against ISIS in the northern Syrian city of Kobani, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Aleppo.

The strikes are helping Kurdish fighters on the ground push back ISIS militants in the Syrian town, according to CNN

After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, some Sunni former officers from Saddam's army joined the ranks of the Islamic State of Iraq, a branch of Al-Qaeda which later became ISIS.

Sources
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/17/us-mideast-crisis-jets-idUSKCN0I60TM20141017

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-fighters-training-to-fly-captured-planes-by-iraqi-pilots-9802109.html

http://nypost.com/2014/10/17/isis-training-pilots-to-fly-captured-fighter-jets/


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