Abdalaziz Alhamza – Exclusive- RBSS
ISIS group insists to make itself a hard number in the arena of international terrorism, using different means of killing and destruction and brutality, to strengthen its approach which reflects the extreme understanding of Islam, the group does not exclude any effort to achieve its objectives, even if it was contrary to the traditions and customs, or even religious legislation that they claim maintaining it.
Itseems that the expansionary policy of ISIS is evolving, the group are no longer satisfied to control the ground, so they turned their attention to the sky in order to participate with Assad’s air forces in killing and destruction, to become the “Islamic State” a reality imposed by force on people, where there is no no-fly zone to protect Syrians nor ground forces to defend them.
A reporter from “Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently” in Tabaqa city mentioned that he saw three warplanes, one was black and two in white color, the planes launched from the military airport of Tabaqa toward north, and flew at low altitude over the villages of Alfedawi and Gleb al-Ajeel and the high way of Aleppo-Raqqa, the flight continued for half an hour accompanied by drones, and then the planes returned to the airport, but they remained outside hangars until the evening of that day.
Eyewitness from the area confirmed that they noticed heavy deployment of ISIS members and closing the roads around the airport a day before the flight process, as eyewitnesses reported that the group inserted the planes carrying missiles into hangars.
It is worth mentioning, that ISIS seized the military airport of Tabaqa in 25 August 2014, it was contain 5 squadrons of warplanes MIG and Sukhoi and a number of helicopters such as Mi 25, the group destroyed some of them during the storming of the airport and seized the remaining planes. Expert Iraqi officers recently oversee on the training of a number of fighters on piloting these planes, through training courses taking place in the military airport of Tabaqa.
In October 17, training missions has already preceded this flight in the military airport of al-Jarrah which known as Kshesh, which lies 70 kilometers east of Aleppo and is considered one of the most important strongholds of the group, but it was limited and at low altitude and did not last a long time for fear of targeting.
It appears that there are several reasons to ease dangerous of ISIS flight such as non-availability of safe airspace for take-off of planes, as the planes which seized by the group are too old, mostly MiG 21 and L – 39.
“The Daily Beast” reported from unnamed source in the US Air Force as saying, that these pilots who work in the ranks of the group may pose a danger to themselves more than the risk they pose to others, the probability of death in an accident is a very high probability, as well as the training of new pilots take months, and perhaps years, before they can fly planes in a professional manner.
Although that the current situation of the group do not suggest its ability to use the Air Force, but the real fear is in the process of preparing trained pilots to lead the planes, and the revival of the events of September 11 in the Western countries, by sending these trained pilots to carry out attacks in the depth of western world, and the implementation of ISIS promise which threatened to move the battlefield into Europe and America.
The group has already used drones in several battles with Syrian regime and in the battle of Ain Arab (Kobanî), but some experts believe that the possibility of taking advantage of these planes in effective manner is still limited. Christopher Harmer, a senior military analyst with the Project of Middle East security at the Washington Institute for the Study of War, said that: “ISIS does not have reusable combat drones, but I think it is only a matter of time before they can convert the unmanned reconnaissance aircrafts to a combat drones equipped with missiles “.
Drones were used for the first time by extremist groups such as “Hezbollah” the Lebanese, who used drones in 2005, according to a document published by WikiLeaks.
Tim Ramadan
