Islamic State downs Syrian warplane
Group says the craft was the first fighter jet destroyed since Assad's forces began attacking territories it holds in July
BAGHDAD (AFP) — Islamic State fighters shot down a Syrian warplane conducting strikes against them on Tuesday, the first time they have done so since the regime began bombing their stronghold of Raqqa in July, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“IS fighters fired on a military aircraft which crashed,” the Britain-based monitoring group said.
“It is the first aircraft shot down since the regime launched airstrikes against the jihadists in July following their declaration of a caliphate in late June,” said the group, which relies on a wide network of doctors and activists for reports on the situation in Syria.
A photograph posted on a jihadist Twitter account purported to show the wreckage of the plane.
“Allahu Akbar (God is great), thanks to God we can confirm that a military aircraft has been shot down over Raqqa,” another account said, congratulating the “lions of the Islamic State.”
The United States has bombed jihadists near Baghdad in support of Iraqi forces, striking close to the capital for the first time in its expanded campaign against the Islamic State group.
The US airstrike against IS fighters in the Sadr al-Yusufiyah area, 15 miles from Baghdad, came as world diplomats pledged to support Iraq in its fight against the militants and less than a week after US President Barack Obama ordered a “relentless” war against IS.
“US military forces continued to attack (IS) terrorists in Iraq, employing attack and fighter aircraft to conduct two airstrikes Sunday and Monday in support of Iraqi security forces near Sinjar and southwest of Baghdad,” the US Central Command said in a statement.
“The airstrike southwest of Baghdad was the first strike taken as part of our expanded efforts beyond protecting our own people and humanitarian missions to hit (IS) targets as Iraqi forces go on offense, as outlined in the president’s speech last Wednesday.”
The strikes destroyed six IS vehicles near Sinjar and an IS position southwest of Baghdad that had been firing on Iraqi forces. They bring the number of US air strikes across Iraq to 162.
Iraqi security spokesman Lieutenant General Qassem Atta on Tuesday welcomed the expanded American action, saying the US “carried out an important strike against an enemy target in Sadr al-Yusufiyah.”
Sadr al-Yusufiyah lies in the Euphrates Valley, between the militant stronghold of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, and the key battleground of Jurf al-Sakhr, further south.
It is one of the closest front lines to Baghdad where Iraqi government forces and allied militia have struggled to defend their positions.
IS militants have seized significant territories in Iraq and Syria, declaring an Islamic “caliphate,” committing widespread atrocities and instituting a brutal interpretation of Islamic law.
The beheading at the weekend of a British aid worker, David Haines, the third Western hostage to be executed on camera, raised the stakes in the battle against the jihadists, who the CIA estimates have as many as 31,500 fighters.