Syrian activists say the Islamic State (IS) group has captured some MiG fighter jets and is test-flying the warplanes in Syria with the help of former Iraqi air force pilots.
Friday’s account by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights could not be independently confirmed, and US officials said they had no reports of the militants flying jets in support of their fighters in Iraq and Syria.
The Observatory said the planes, seen flying over the Jarrah air base in the eastern countryside of Syria’s Aleppo Province this week, are believed to be of the MiG-21 and MiG-23 variety.
Rami Abdurrahman, director of the Observatory, said the planes have been flying at a low altitude, “apparently to avoid being detected by Syrian military radar in the area.”
He described the flights as a “moral victory” for IS, saying “the jets could not fly much further without being knocked down” by the US-led coalition that is conducting airstrikes in Iraq and Syria.
The group is known to have seized fighter jets from at least one air base it captured from the Syrian army in Raqqa Province earlier this year. Militant Web sites had posted photographs of IS fighters with the warplanes, but it was unclear if they were operational.
Abdurrahman said IS members were being trained by Iraqi officers who had joined the group and who were once pilots under former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
The Jarrah air base was taken by Islamic State militants in January this year.
Meanwhile, IS pressed an offensive on the Iraqi city of Ramadi, the capital of the Sunni-dominated Anbar Province 115km west of Baghdad. Ramadi has, for the most part, remained in the hands of Iraqi military forces since the group first pushed into Anbar Province in December last year.
The government in Baghdad imposed a curfew on Friday in Ramadi as Iraqi forces moved to eliminate pockets of resistance there, Anbar Provincial Council Chairman Sabah Karhout said.
Capturing Ramadi would have a ripple effect throughout Anbar, since controlling the provincial capital would ultimately paralyze the surrounding areas and help the militant group secure yet another corridor with Syria for the passage of fighters, munitions and field artillery to move between both countries.
Major operations also are under way in Iraq’s Salahuddin Province to retake key areas between the city of Tikrit, which is mostly controlled by the Sunni militant group, and the town of Beiji, home to Iraq’s largest oil refinery.
In the past week, the US Central Command has reported only three airstrikes in Anbar Province: one of them near Ramadi, one near the captured town of Hit and one near the Haditha Dam.
The fierce fighting for Kobane has allowed the coalition to take out large numbers of IS militants, Austin said, restricting their freedom of movement and communications.
Clashes between Kurdish fighters and militants continued in Kobane. A Kurdish official said Kurdish fighters have begun sharing information with the coalition to coordinate strikes against IS militants there.
The admission could further complicate relations between Washington and Ankara, which views the main Syrian Kurdish militia with suspicion because of its links to the Kurdish PKK insurgent group.
“There is direct coordination between Kurdish and American coalition forces,” Kurdish Democratic Union Party spokesman Nawaf Khali said.
“That’s no secret. It began about a week ago,” he said.
The party’s armed wing, known as the People’s Protection Units or YPG, has been struggling to defend Kobane against IS despite dozens of coalition airstrikes against the militants.
Khalil said Kurdish fighters provided “correct and credible intelligence” early on, building trust with the coalition. There was no comment from US military officials.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese