Former Iraqi pilots train IS fighters on MiG jets

[daring dude]

BEIRUT (AP) — The Islamic State group is test flying, with the help of former Iraqi air force pilots, several fighter jets captured earlier from air bases belonging to the Syrian military, a Syrian activist group said Friday.

The report by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights could not be independently confirmed, and U.S. official said they had no reports of IS militants flying jets in support of their forces on the ground.

The new development came as the Islamic State group in Iraq pressed its offensive on the strategic city of Ramadi, west of Baghdad. The militants appeared to be taking advantage of the focus of U.S.-led airstrikes on the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobani, along the border with Turkey, to concentrate on their second front in Iraq.

The Observatory said the planes, seen flying over the Jarrah air base in the countryside of Aleppo province in eastern Syria this week, are believed to be MiG-21 and MiG-23 jets. Rami Abdurrahman, director of the Observatory, said the planes have been flying at a low altitude, "apparently to avoid being detected by Syrian military radar in the area."

He described the flights as a "moral victory" for the Islamic State group, saying "the jets could not fly much further without being knocked down by the (international) coalition."

The report on the IS flights in Aleppo added yet another layer of complexity to the Mideast crisis in the wake of the onslaught by the Islamic State militants.

The U.S. and its allies are bombing IS bases in Syria and Iraq, where the extremists have seized large swaths of territory.

During its blitz, the Islamic State group is known to have seized fighter jets from at least one air base it captured from the Syrian army in the eastern Raqqa province earlier this year. Militant websites had posted pictures of IS fighters posing next to the fighter jets, but it was unclear if they were operational.

Abdurrahman said Islamic State members were being trained by Iraqi officers who had joined the group and who were once pilots under Saddam Hussein.

In January, Islamic State militants also captured the Jarrah air base in Syria after bitter clashes with rival extremists and Syrian rebel groups. A mix of several Islamic rebel groups battling Syrian President Bashar Assad — including al-Qaida's Syrian branch, the Nusra Front — had seized the base from government troops in early 2013.

Gen. Lloyd Austin, the top U.S. commander for the Middle East, said he has no operational reports of IS militants flying jets in support of their forces on the ground.

Austin, the head of U.S. Central Command who is directing the fight in Iraq and Syria, told Pentagon reporters that he also has no information about Iraqi pilots defecting to IS.

However, an Iraqi intelligence official said the government in Baghdad is aware of several ex-Iraqi military officers going to Syria to train militants with the Islamic State group.

The militants acquired war planes from al-Tabaqa air base in Syria but did not get any when they toppled the Iraqi military in Mosul, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to media.

Meanwhile, clashes between Syrian Kurdish fighters and Islamic State militants continued on Friday in the town of Kobani, along the Syrian-Turkish border.

The Kurdish fighters have begun sharing information with the U.S.-led coalition to coordinate strikes against Islamic State militants there, a Kurdish official said.

The admission could further complicate relations between Washington and Turkey, which views the main Syrian Kurdish militia with suspicion because of its links to the Kurdish PKK insurgent group.

"There is direct coordination between Kurdish and American coalition forces," Nawaf Khalil, spokesman for the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, told The Associated Press. "That's no secret. It began about a week ago," he said.

The party's armed wing, known as the People's Protection Units or YPG, has been struggling to defend the town — also known under its Arabic name, Ayn Arab — against the Islamic State militants, despite dozens of U.S.-led airstrikes against the extremists.

Kurdish fighters provided "correct and credible intelligence" early on, building trust with the U.S.-led coalition, Khalil said. There was no immediate comment from U.S. military officials.

The battle for Kobani has emerged as a key test for the U.S.-led air campaign against the IS group in Syria, with the vast majority of strikes conducted in and around the embattled town.

Turkey has ground forces and tanks deployed just across the border but has declined to intervene. It views the Syrian Kurdish YPG as an extension of the PKK, which has waged a long and bloody insurgency in Turkey and is designated a terrorist group by the United States and NATO.

Khalil's acknowledgement of coordination came after State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Thursday that U.S. officials had met with members of the Syrian Kurdish party for the first time.

Khalil said the meeting took place last week in Paris, and that it wasn't the first time the two sides had met. "The contact isn't new, but the admission of it is," he said.

He said the party had not publicized the meetings because it did not want to cause more strife between Ankara and Washington.

In Washington, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Friday that in recent days, the U.S. has seen Islamic State group start to mass its fighters and materiel around Kobani with the intent to overrun the town.

"At the same time, that has created a rather target-rich environment around Kobani for American and coalition airstrikes," Earnest said. "When they see clusters of fighters and they see depots of materiel or supplies that are critical to the success of those fighters, it's easier to take them out."

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Associated Press writers Vivian Salama in Baghdad and Deb Riechmann in Washington contributed to this report.



US pounds IS in Kobane after first talks with Syria Kurds

US-led warplanes pummelled jihadists attacking the Syrian town of Kobane Friday as the Pentagon said there was no imminent threat to Baghdad despite a wave of deadly bombings.

Six strikes hit Islamic State group positions close to the front line in the east of Kobane, taking advantage of new coordination with the town's Kurdish defenders, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

In neighbouring Iraq, sandstorms hampered the US-led air campaign against the jihadists, but despite recent advances west of Baghdad, IS is not poised for an assault on the capital, the Pentagon said.

The dawn strikes in Kobane came after US Central Command said American warplanes struck 14 times around the town on Wednesday and Thursday, including "successful" raids on 19 IS-held buildings.

"There is coordination between the Kurdish forces and the Americans," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

"The Kurds are giving them the exact coordinates of where the fighting is."

On Friday, Kurdish fighters faced three attacks by IS militants in the east and near the centre, said the Britain-based Observatory, which has a wide network of sources inside Syria.

Previously, Kurdish commanders in Kobane had complained of a lack of coordination with US air commanders to ensure support for their fighters on the ground.

- US engages Syria Kurds -

Washington revealed it held its first direct talks last weekend with the main Syrian Kurdish group whose forces have been battling IS.

Earlier contacts with the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) had all been handled through intermediaries, as the group has close ties with the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) -- which is on the US terror blacklist -- over the border in Turkey.

The PYD has been appealing urgently for weapons to resupply its outgunned fighters in Kobane.

But asked if Washington was discussing the request, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said: "I don't think we're at that point."

The Kurds claimed to have pushed IS back in parts of Kobane as the coalition intensified its air strikes in recent days.

But the Pentagon warned that the strikes may not prevent the town's fall even though it says several hundred jihadists have been killed.

With the world's press massed just across the border in Turkey, the battle for Kobane has become a high-profile one for both IS and its opponents.

But the jihadists are also fighting on other fronts, both in Syria and in neighbouring Iraq.

In eastern Syria, IS lost nine of its fighters in clashes with government forces in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, the Observatory said.

In Hasakeh province in the northeast, it lost 20 fighters in clashes with Kurdish forces on Thursday.

Coalition forces have now carried out more than 100 air strikes near Kobane since September 27.

The month-old IS assault on the area has sparked an exodus of some 200,000 mainly Kurdish refugees across the border, where the town's plight has stoked nationalist sentiment among Turkey's own large Kurdish minority.

Ankara's inaction has sparked deadly Kurdish protests that have left at least 34 people dead and complicated Washington's negotiations with its NATO ally for it to play a bigger role against IS.

- No 'imminent' Baghdad threat -

The US military says Kobane may eventually fall but insists it is not a "strategic" location and that other areas carry more importance, particularly in western Iraq and the suburbs of Baghdad.

Bombings in and around Baghdad killed at least 26 people and wounded dozens Thursday, including a double car bombing in the Dolai neighbourhood that was claimed by IS.

Despite such attacks, US military spokesmen Rear Admiral John Kirby said "we don't believe that Baghdad is under imminent threat" from the jihadists.

"It's not the first time in recent weeks or even months that there's been IED (improvised explosive device) attacks inside Baghdad," he said.

"There are not masses of formations of (IS) forces outside of Baghdad about to come in."

Kirby said "terrible" weather had hampered US-led air strikes in Iraq in recent days.

Iraqi government forces launched an offensive on Friday north of the city of Tikrit, one of a string of mainly Sunni Arab towns north and west of Baghdad that the jihadists seized in June.

President Barack Obama told military chiefs from more than 20 allies this week they are facing a "long-term campaign" to defeat IS, which is well entrenched in a swathe of both Iraq and Syria.