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Observatory Says IS Flew Aircraft over Syria, U.S. Army 'Not Aware'
[AnNahar] Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... group jihadists are being trained by Saddam Hussein's former pilots to fly three fighter jets captured from the Syrian military, a monitoring group said Friday. But a front man for the American central command said the U.S. military was "unaware" of flight operations by IS turbans. The planes, 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. The jets were seized from Syrian military airports now under IS control in the northern provinces of Aleppo and Raqa, according to the Britannia-based group, which has a wide network of sources inside the war-torn country. It said that former Iraqi army officers who once served under Saddam were supervising the training at the military airport of Jarrah, east of the city of Aleppo. Witnesses have reported seeing planes flying at a low altitude to avoid detection by radar after taking off from Jarrah. It comes as the United States and its allies carry out a wave of air strikes on IS positions in Syria and Iraq. The jihadists also control two other airports in Syria -- Albu Kamal near the Iraqi border and Tabqa in Raqa province. IS has captured large parts of Syria and Iraq, committing atrocities and declaring an Islamic "caliphate". 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 IS. Posted by: trailing wife 2014-10-18 |
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