Terrorist 'Fighter Pilots' Being Trained On Captured MiGs by Saddam Hussein's Ex-Air Force Officers

[big_dog]

Source: The London Daily Mail

Islamic State leaders in Syria and Iraq are training their fighters to fly captured fighter jets in the hope of establishing an air force, it has been claimed. The terror group are understood to have been carrying out test flights the captured al-Jarrah military airport east of Aleppo, according to a British-based organisation monitoring the Syrian Civil War.

Having captured three fighter jets from the Syrian military, ISIS are using Iraqi pilots who were once officers in Saddam Hussein's air force to train Syria-based militants to operate the warplanes. The news comes as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula sought to mend its strained relations with ISIS, urging all jihadist groups operating in the Middle East to unite under the common cause of fighting against Western 'crusader' armies.

ISIS' alleged test flights over the Aleppo countryside are understood to be the first time the terror group - which seized control of vast swathes of Syria and Iraq earlier this year - has taken to the air. 'They have trainers, Iraqi officers who were pilots before for Saddam Hussein,' said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

'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,' he said, citing witnesses near al-Jarrah military airport. The airport, which was seized from the Syrian regime earlier this year, is approximately 45 miles from the Turkish border. It is not clear if the jets are equipped with weaponry nor if the pilots are able to fly long distances, but witnesses said the planes appear to be Soviet-built MiG 21 or MiG 23 models.




Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2797167/does-isis-airforce-terrorist-fighter-pilots-trained-captured-migs-saddam-hussein-s-ex-air-force-officers.html

[Renew Deal]

1. The US Air Force can use them for target practice.

[leftynyc]

2. Thought the exact same thing

They should make some pretty big targets. I hope they take them on the ground because otherwise they risk hurting civilians.

[Shadowflash]

4. That's about what it would amount to.

Drone bait.

[Archae]

6. Same thing I had in mind.

I was reminded of a 1980's Dr Demento favorite, "Libyan On A Jet Plane."

[MADem]

7. OMG, do the trainers want them to die, you have to wonder? nt

[yurbud]

12. Yep. If Saddam's air force was no match for us, why would these yokels be better?

[Blue_Tires]

16. I hope not...

There aren't a whole lot of MiG-23s left and they should be preserved in museums or classic air shows

[AgingAmerican]

3. Are they teaching them how to land?

Or just take off. Doubt they will be any good at flying a Cessna, let alone a fighter jet.

How are they 'training' them? A refrigerator box with dials and stuff painted on the inside?

[Iamthetruth]

33. Yes they are teaching them to land

In little burning pieces.

[valerief]

5. Every time is see the name ISIS, I imagine Seinfeld saying it like he says, "Newman!"

"ISIS!"
"Hello, ISIS."

[enlightenment]

8. The Daily Mail.

Great for hyperbole and UK variety right-wing ranting. Also good for teaching budding journalists what not to do and pissing off celebrities the world over for printing gossip as fact.

Not really a go-to source for reliable information.

[CJCRANE]

9. Guardian UK: Islamic State training pilots to fly MiG fighter planes, says monitoring group

Militants reportedly have three captured jets and witnesses cited as saying they have seen planes flying low over Aleppo

Islamic State (Isis) is takings its first steps towards building an air force by training pilots to fly captured fighter planes, according to a group monitoring the conflict in Syria.

Isis is using lots of tanks, armoured personnel carriers, artillery and Jeeps taken from the Syrian and Iraqi armies but this is the first report that it has planes in the air.

Isis, which took the US by surprise this year with its rapid territorial expansion in Syria and Iraq, has three Russian-built MiG jets, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which appears to have a good network of observers on the ground and has often proved reliable in the past.

Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the British-based group, said Isis has trainers who had gained experience in the Iraqi air force under former president Saddam Hussein.

LINK

[enlightenment]

11. Better source.

I didn't suggest that the DM fantasized the whole thing, but the DM doesn't have particularly high standards of journalism.

[Darb]

10. BWAAHAHAHAHA. That's rich.

What a bunch of horseshit. Please, please get one off the ground.

[yurbud]

13. This makes me long for Bush era propaganda.

[ronnie624]

35. Exactly.

Crude as hell. People lap it up, anyway.

[ladjf]

14. If true, this is not something we are going to need to worry about.

During the Iraqi war, the Iraqi air force was all but non-existent. There is no way that the ISIS fighters are going to be able to launce any kind of jet air force threat. And if they did, they would be fighting on our terms and an area in which we specialize.

It isn't likely that ISIS is even considering such an unworkable scenario.

[Brigid]

15. And at US Air Force O-Clubs all over the world . . .

Jet jockeys are seeing this story and falling all over themselves laughing.

[Kaleva]

17. I suspect they'll be used as modern day kamikazes.

They have no shortage of people willing to die for the cause and there's a fair amount of above average intelligent ones in that group. Intelligent enough to learn how to fly an obsolete fighter jet low and fast and scream "Allahu Akbar!" before crashing into their designated high value ground target.

[big_dog]

19. could they fly low enough to avoid radar

most radar would shoot them own within seconds (unless they were screaming along fast)

[Xithras]

18. They'd lose A2A engagements, but imagine a 2000 pound bomb hitting an aircraft carrier at mach 2.

A MiG 21 can carry two 1000 lb bombs and has a maximum speed of Mach 2. You don't need to be a dogfighter to do some damage with that kind of power.

This sounds like a problem that a couple of tomahawks could solve. Fly a sat over at night to figure out where they're parked and blow them to bits before the sun comes up.

Hell, they honestly wouldn't even need to hit an aircraft carrier to start a shit storm. Commercial airliners, airports, government buildings, military bases. Anything could be a target. Imagine the shitstorm that would follow one or two of these slamming into the Knesset while it was in session? Flight time from Syria to Jerusalem is about four minutes at mach 2.

[Kaleva]

20. I think the Iraqi Parliment when it's in session would be a more do-able target

[CatholicEdHead]

21. Carrier groups are well protected

Besides a ever present CAP, there are many ship to air missiles on support ships which would make short work of the planes long before they sight the group.

[Kaleva]

23. And finding the carrier would be a problem too.

[MADem]

37. How do they get close enough to the carrier, undetected?

It's not like battle groups don't keep an eye out for that sort of thing (even in peacetime), after all...

Wonder Woman could maybe do it...but they ain't Wonder Woman...!

[awoke_in_2003]

22. Brand new pilots

with little training in obsolete aircraft that haven't been maintained worth a damn for over a decade. This will end well for them.

[Kaleva]

24. You are such a Negative Nelly!

Think positive!

[awoke_in_2003]

25. Well, I positively think

that a lot of these guys are going to end up killing themselves

[Kaleva]

26. Well, I think that's the actual goal.

To train these pilots well enough so they can be sent out on a one way mission.

[awoke_in_2003]

27. I doubt they will arrive at their target. nt

[Scootaloo]

28. No no, see...

They're conducting these tests over Aleppo. Aleppo is in Syria. This makes them the good-guy "moderate rebels" ISIS that we like, and not the bad guy "extremist ISIS" we dislike; those are the ones in Iraq.

[marble falls]

29. The same Saddam Air Force trainers who flew their jets to Iran so as to not meet US fliers? Those...

trainers? It'll be interesting to see what happens when the ISIS air force pilot pool is drained and all there are left are ex Saddam personnel.

[donco]

30. Kamikaze comes to mind.

How much explosives can one pack into a MiG 21 or MiG 23?

[Helen Borg]

32. Good question...

[Helen Borg]

31. Oh wow, now they have 3 planes!

With improvised pilots. What are they gonna do with them? The minute they are spotted on radar they will be shot down, no?

[MannyGoldstein]

34. Terra! from the sky!

Taking Terra! To a new higher height!

Instant Terra! death from above for all Americans!

Be very, very afraid. And we'll need to buy lots of anti-air-Terra stuff from the BFEE and other patriotic Americans.

[ronnie624]

36. Lol.

[GGJohn]

38. Missile/cannon fodder anyone?

These guys wouldn't last 2 minutes against any half way competent fighter pilot or SAM crew.

[yurbud]

39. this story depends on people being so ignorant of recent history and so lacking reasoning ability

that they wouldn't stumble upon this story or be able to read it in the first place.

And the zookeepers probably don't give them access to computer anyway.