Islamic State militants in Syria are training Iraqi pilots who joined the group to fly in three captured fighter jets, Reuters reported citing witnesses.
“They have trainers, Iraqi officers who were pilots before for [former Iraqi President] Saddam Hussein,” said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. “People saw the flights. They went up many times from the airport.”
The group has reportedly been flying the planes over a captured Syrian military airport in the northern Aleppo province, which was among the areas in Syria seized by islamists this year.
The jets, which witnesses said defined as MiG 21 or MiG 23 models, were captured from the Syrian military. It was not clear whether or not they were equipped with weaponry.
