Islamic State on
Sunday captured Tabqa Airbase in Syria, the last government outpost in Raqqa
province. Today there are reports that the insurgents might have seized
significant amount of weaponry, including a cache of shoulder-fired 9K38 Igla type (SA-16) MANPADS, K-13 type short-range air-to-air missiles and a number of MiG-21 type jet aircraft.
The Washington Post said this afternoon
that the seizure of Tabqa Airbase highlights Islamic State’s “gain in the
region and the group’s continued pilfering of advanced military equipment,
particularly the surface-to-air missile systems known as MANPADS, short for Man
Portable Air Defense Systems.” (The Washington Post, 25 August)
Charles Lister, an
analyst at Brookings Doha Center, also twitted today that Islamic State
fighters have captured SA-16 MANPADS, AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles, and MIG-21B
jets in Tabaqa Airbase. (Twitter/@Charles_Lister, 25 August)
Photo credit: An IS insurgent carrying MANPADS (Twitter/@Charles_Lister)
Photo credit: An IS insurgent carrying MANPADS (Twitter/@Charles_Lister)
4 comments:
Does this event create the justification needed for western intervention in Syria?
What ? An AIM-9 Sidewinder missile in a Syrian airbase ? Seem utterly unlikely, to say the least. They must have confused it with its Russian equivalent mentionned above. It's like saying that an IDF airbase uses R-27 missiles...
As we noted in the post, the short-range air-to-air missiles were probably K-13 type.
The Mig-21's won't be of any use.
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