Report: ISIS militants training to fly warplanes


By Raja Razek and Jason Hanna, CNN


October 17, 2014

(CNN) -- ISIS is in possession of three warplanes in northern Syria, and former Iraqi military officers are training members of the Sunni Islamist militant group to fly them, a Syrian opposition group said Friday.

The planes are at the Al-Jarrah military airport east of the contested city of Aleppo, the London-based Syrian opposition group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports, citing sources in Syria.

Information on how the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, which calls itself the Islamic State, obtained the planes, or the trainees' previous level of familiarity with flight wasn't immediately available. CNN hasn't independently verified the report.

The former Iraqi military officers are among those who have joined ISIS, and people living near the airport have said that they recently saw an airplane flying at low altitude after it took off, according to observatory.

ISIS has captured large swaths of northern and eastern Syria, as well as parts of western and northern Iraq, for what it says is its new Islamic caliphate.