LONDON, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- The Islamic State has three captured Syrian fighter planes and is training pilots to use them, a British group monitoring Syria reported.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Iraqi pilots who have joined IS, trained under former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, are training other members. Witnesses say they have seen the planes, Russian-built MiG fighter planes, flying near the Aleppo, Syria, airport.
Col. Patrick Ryder, of U.S. Central Command, said the Pentagon was now aware of the IS' new air force.
The IS has a considerable amount of ground equipment, including tanks, armored personnel carrier and artillery taken from the Syrian and Iraqi army, but the SOHR report is the first to suggest it is building an air capability. It did not mention if the planes were equipped with missiles.
Afzal Ashraf, a former captain in Britain's Royal air Force and a counter-terrorism analyst at London's Royal United Services Institute, said fighter jets of the type witnesses described would require regular maintenance, air traffic control and a good navigation system. He added they could easily be defeated by regional air defense systems and by more advanced planes flown by the United States, the United Kingdom, Turkey and even Syria.
