Does ISIS have an airforce? - PHOTO

The reported flights are believed to be the first time the militant group has taken to the air and raises the possibility of attacks on British, US and French targets in neighbouring Iraq.Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the militants were flying the planes on ‘short flight’ training at the al-Jarrah military airport east of the city of Aleppo, where the group has a major base.‘They have trainers, Iraqi officers who were pilots before for (former Iraqi president) Saddam Hussein,’ Mr Abdulrahman said.‘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 added, citing witnesses in northern Aleppo province near the base, which is 45 miles south of Turkey.It was not clear if the jets were equipped with weaponry or whether the pilots could fly longer distances. Witnesses near the base in northern Syria said the jets appeared to be decades old MiG21 or MiG23 models captured from the Syrian military.Twitter accounts linked to ISIS, also known as ISIL and Islamic State, had previously posted pictures of captured jets in other parts of Syria, but the aircraft had appeared unusable, according to analysts and diplomats.The group has captured several major military airfields, including the vast Tabqa complex, close to their headquarters in the Syrian city of Raqqa and seized aircraft, helicopters and heavy weapons.The base was reportedly one of the Syrian military’s largest facilities in the region, with several warplane squadrons, helicopters, tanks, artillery and ammunition.Defence analysts say that it unlikely the group's MiGs could be used conventionally as the US-led coalition of Syrian forces would shoot them down.Instead, they could be deployed for spectacular low-level suicide attacks on western targets in the Kurdish city or Irbil or the Iraqi capital Baghdad where the US and Britain have a major presence.The U.S. military said yesterday it was unaware of any flight operations by the group ‘in Syria or elsewhere’.‘We’re not aware of ISIL (IS) conducting any flight operations in Syria or elsewhere,’ said Central Command spokesman Colonel 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 centres of gravity, wherever they may be,’ he added.Meanwhile Kurdish forces, backed by US-led air strikes, are said to be continuing to make gains in their fight with militants in the key northern Syrian town of Kobani.US-led warplanes again struck militants' positions yesterday, taking advantage of new coordination with the town’s Kurdish defenders, who are identifying targets.Kurdish commander Baharin Kandal claimed the extremists have abandoned all of their positions in the town, except for two small pockets of resistance in the east.As recently as Monday it looked as if the fall of Kobani was imminent, with the massively outgunned Kurdish fighters pushed back ever closer to the city centre by ISIS militants advancing into the suburbs, leaving hundreds of mainly elderly residents fearing rape and massacre.(dailymail.co.uk)Bakudaily.Az