ISIS in possession of 3 fighter jets, begins training of pilots

It emerged on Friday that Islamic state militants (ISIS) are concluding plans to begin the use of fighter jets as they have begun the training of pilots for that purpose.

Iraqi pilots who have joined the jihadists in Syria are reportedly training members of the group to fly in three captured fighter jets.

According to Rami Abdulrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, who cited witnesses in the northern Aleppo province in Syria, ISIS has been flying the planes over the captured Al-Jarrah military airport in that country.

Abdulrahman was quoted as saying: “They have trainers, Iraqi officers who were pilots before for (former Iraqi president) Saddam Hussein,”

“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.”

ISIS has captured large parts of northern and eastern Syria, as well as parts of western and northern Iraq, and have declared the area its its new Islamic caliphate.

U.S. airstrikes against the Islamists increased this week  in the northern Syrian city of Kobani, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Aleppo.