Watchdog Group: ISIS Training Militants to Fly Warplanes
A watchdog group as well as the Syrian opposition have said fighters from the ISIS terror group are being trained to fly warplanes by former Iraqi military officers, raising fears that militants could be preparing to attack coalition aircraft.
"Reliable resource reported to SOHR that ISIL now own three warplanes that can fly with pilots being taught high level manoeuvre tactics," the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday.
These warplanes are expected to be MIG 21 and 23, and officers from the Iraqi dissolved army, who are also members of the Islamic State, also known as ISIL, "have overseen the training of some militants in order to be able to lead these aircrafts," the Observatory added.
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This airbase is located at the Al-Jarrah military airport in the eastern countryside of Aleppo and considered the most important camp for ISIS in Syria, it said.
The watchdog said some people who live close to the airbase have reported seeing a warplane taking off from the Al-Jarrah airbase and flying at a low altitude over the area. "The same resources informed SOHR activists that IS fighters seized these aircrafts after taking control over the military airports affiliated to the regime forces in Aleppo and al Raqqa provinces."
The Syrian opposition group has also claimed that former Iraqi military officers are training members of the Sunni extremist militant group to fly warplanes, according to CNN.
No group had verified the report at press time.
"We're not aware of ISIL conducting any flight operations in Syria or elsewhere," CNN quoted spokesman Col. Patrick Ryder of the U.S. Central Command as saying. "We continue to keep a close eye on ISIL activity in Syria and Iraq and will continue to conduct strikes against their equipment, facilities, fighters and centers of gravity, wherever they may be."
The number of airstrikes by a coalition led by the United States against ISIS in the northern Syrian city of Kobani increased this week. Kobani, which borders Turkey, is about 90 miles northwest of Aleppo.
ISIS, an al-Qaeda offshoot, has taken over more than 350 villages around Kobani, and over 150,000 people from the region have fled to Turkey.
"What makes Kobani matter for us from an airstrike perspective is that (ISIS is) there, and that they want it," CNN quoted Rear Adm. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, as saying.
In Iraq, ISIS militants are reported to have MANPAD anti-aircraft missiles which are capable of shooting down airplanes within a range of 15,000 feet, and have advanced to Abu Ghraib, about 8 miles from Baghdad's international airport.
The terror group has gained control of large swathes of territories in Iraq and Syria. It wants to form an Islamic emirate in the Levant region through "jihad."
ISIS has released videos showing the beheading of U.S. journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning.
According to the CIA, ISIS has about 31,500 fighters across Iraq and Syria. It is believed to have hundreds of foreign fighters, including those from the United States and Europe.
