Based on a report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based activist group that monitors the crisis, witnesses had seen warplanes being flown around a military airport in Aleppo. Sources said Iraqi military officers who have joined the jihadists were teaching ISIS members to fly three seized fighter jets.
The activist group conveyed the ISIS-captured warplanes are flying over the Al-Jarrah airbase in the eastern geography of the Syrian town of Aleppo this week, as reported by Fox News.
As per BBC News, SOHR Head Rami Abdul Rahman said ISIS was using Iraqi officers who were pilots under ex-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to train extremists for flying warplanes 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," he said.
The report, which could not be autonomously confirmed, comes as the US and its allies are shelling ISIS bases in Syria and Iraq, where the militants have apprehended large swaths of territory. The Iraqi forces have launched an attack on ISIS insurgents near Tikrit; the city was among the areas in Syria and Iraq seized by the terrorists this year.
As the US-led coalition forces continues to launch attacks on ISIS bases in Syria and Iraq, the militants have commonly used artillery captured from the Syrian and Iraqi armies and has overrun several military bases. If the report is verified, Huffington Post reported this would be the first time it has been able to fly warplanes.
SOHR said sources informed the ISIS-piloted flights were at low altitude and only lasted five to ten minutes before landing. It was indistinct whether the jets were armed with artillery or whether the pilots could fly longer distances in the warplanes, which were seemed to be MiG 21 or MiG 23 models seized from the Syrian military.
Meanwhile, an increased number of US-led airstrikes against ISIS in the northern Syrian city of Kobani has seen this week. The aerial assaults are aiding Kurdish fighters on the ground force back ISIS militants in the Syrian town.
In line with the reports regarding ISIS fighters are flying warplanes in Syria, CNN said the report has not independently verified. But, the US Central Command wanted to stop believing the report.
"We're not aware of ISIL conducting any flight operations in Syria or elsewhere," said spokesman Col. Patrick Ryder. "We continue to keep a close eye on ISIL activity in Syria and Iraq and will continue to conduct strikes against their equipment, facilities, fighters and centers of gravity, wherever they may be."
Whether the reports on ISIS' flying warplanes are true or not, the jihadists continued to seize large swaths of territories in Syria, as well as in Iraq. They also gave gained reputation globally for vicious strategies including mass killings and decapitating of journalists and soldiers. The militants believe for what they say is its new Islamic Caliphate.
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