Islamic State ‘training pilots to fly fighter jets’

Iraqi pilots who have joined Islamic State in Syria are training members of the group to fly in three captured fighter jets, a group monitoring the war said on Friday, saying it was the first time that the militant group had taken to the air. The group, which has seized land in Syria and Iraq, has been flying the planes over the captured al-Jarrah military airport east of Aleppo, said Rami Abdul Rahman, who runs the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Reuters was not immediately able to verify the report and U.S. Central Command said it was not aware of Islamic State flying jets in Syria.

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.

Rami Abdul Rahman

It was not clear whether the jets were equipped with weaponry or whether the pilots could fly longer distances in the planes, which witnesses said appeared to be MiG 21 or MiG 23 models captured from the Syrian military. We’re not aware of (Islamic State) conducting any flight operations in Syria or elsewhere,” U.S. Central Command spokesman Colonel Patrick Ryder said.

They have trainers, Iraqi officers who were pilots before for (former Iraqi president) Saddam Hussein.

Rami Abdul Rahman

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