ISIS in Libya is believed to have at least one flight simulator, like the one pictured.
ISIS is training pilots at an airbase in Libya, using small plane left over from the Qaddafi regime and at least one flight simulator in an effort experts fear could lead to aerial attacks targeting Europe, according to regional analysts.
The terrorist group, which is bulking up its footprint in the chaotic north African nation even as airstrikes by Russia, the U.S. and other western allies pound its headquarters in Syria, is functioning unfettered in the Mediterranean city of Sirte. Given that Sirte is just a short flight from mainland Europe – Italy is closest of all - the development could mean ISIS is closing in on a bid to take its terrorism to a frightening new level with a multitude of high-profile potential targets within range.
“We know that the jihadists are trying every means to hurt the West, and if they can blow themselves up in cars they can certainly do the same with airplanes; this wouldn’t be a great novelty and is in line with their thinking and purpose to do as much harm as possible," Col. Jacques Neriah, the retired former deputy head for assessment of Israeli Military Intelligence and an expert on North African affairs, told Fox News.com.
“We’re not talking about MIG-31 or F-16 pilots," he continued. "We’re talking about very basic, rudimentary pilots who can take off in a light plane and crash themselves into the Vatican, for instance. It takes only an hour and a half to cross [the Mediterranean Sea] from Libya to Rome.”
Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi told French President Francois Hollande at a meeting in Paris that "Europe must turn its attention to the militants’ rise in Libya."
Reports of ISIS training pilots out of the Sirte airbase appeared earlier this week in the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper. The paper cited a security official in Libya who said the Libyan Air Force had attempted to destroy ISIS training camps in Libya but had met with limited success, and highlighted the fact that a brand-new aircraft training simulator has been acquired by the radical Sunni terrorist organization as recently as October.
Fears that ISIS may be growing close to stepping up its activities from North Africa –from where tens of thousands of migrants have successfully crossed to mainland Europe by boat over the last few years - were highlighted in a recent report presented to the United Nations Security Council.
"While currently concentrated in its stronghold in Sirte, ISIL [ISIS] could seek local alliances to expand its territorial control, also entailing the risk of motivating additional foreign terrorist fighters to join the group in Libya," the Nov. 15 assessment warned. "ISIL is an evident short and long-term threat in Libya. The group is benefiting from the “appeal” and notoriety of ISIL in Iraq and in the Syrian Arab Republic.”
"Libya is strategically important for ISIL, in view of its geographical location at the crossroads between the Middle East, Africa and Europe," the reported continued, noting that ISIL had declared its governance in three provinces. "However, this division does not translate into actual control of territory, but rather demonstrates the ISIL aspirational vision for its presence in Libya."
A growing number of regional observers contend that in order to stop the increased presence of ISIS and many other Islamist terror groups in Libya urgent action needs to be taken. Outside of Syria and Iraq, Libya is the only country where ISIS governs territory. It has focused its efforts on Sirte, where the majority of Libya's vast oil resources are found. It already makes hundreds of millions of dollars from the oil fields it controls in Syria, but thus far is believed to have generally been unsuccessful in exporting Libyan oil.
"[ISIS] tried a few months ago to send a first shipment abroad and it was confiscated by the US navy," Neriah explained. "It would appear that they are not able at this point to smuggle meaningful quantities."
Huge quantities of weapons left over from the bloody fight to depose Colonel Qadaffi in 2011 continue however to find their way into terrorists' hands. Many have surfaced in Syria, Mali, and Gaza, among other places, while there is conclusive evidence that the Sinai Peninsula - scene of the downing by ISIS in October of a Russian airliner with the loss of 224 lives – is a pivotal location for the buying and selling of such weaponry knocked down to whichever terrorist organization is prepared to pay the highest price.
The embattled Libyan government has been appealing for more help to assist it fending off the Islamists from its territory but thus far there appears little appetite on the part of the international community for another direct intervention in Libya, a decision that some experts believe might come back to haunt them.
“Everybody is thinking about [ISIS] as a terrorist organization, but in fact this is a terrorist state. They have all the organs of a state," Dr. Neriah concluded. "In Mosul [in Iraq] alone they took about 2,500 armored personnel carriers from the Iraqi army, all brand new American equipment. During the civil war in Syria, ISIS and other jihadists have been manipulating and producing chemical weapons and reports have shown they have attacked Syrian forces with chemical means at a time when people thought it was only the regime that was doing so. So, this terrorist state has the means to train people."
"If the international community doesn’t intervene militarily, either through an Arab military force or an international force, I fear the outcome in Libya might be very grim.”
Story and comments: http://www.foxnews.com
Air Daesh: Hopeful hijackers undergo terrorist pilot training in Libya
Militants from Daesh (also known as ISIL/ISIS) are currently undergoing civil aviation training in the Libyan city of Sirte, the group’s apparent stronghold in North Africa, according to the Saudi-run, London-based newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat.
The outlet says that the terrorists “practice take-off and landing, [using] a radar screen, and a communications device to contact the control tower.”
The “prevailing belief amongst investigators” is that the flight simulator was seized from the training departments of Gaddafi’s looted airports.
However other sources note that it is a brand new device and “may have arrived from abroad”.
A group of Daesh leaders, including retired officers from Libya and a number of neighboring countries, acquired the first civilian plane simulator in October, the newspaper quotes a senior Libyan military officer as saying in an interview during his recent visit to Cairo.
However, new information gathered by security services from Sirte during the last two weeks suggests that another fighter jet simulator had arrived.
However, its type remains unknown.
The Libyan Air Force allegedly attempted to hit at least one base where the training is believed to be taking place, but to no avail, the newspaper quotes one security official working in a team which monitors Daesh activity in North Africa as saying.
Recent reports suggest that the jihadist group has increased its presence in the Mediterranean city of Sirte from 200 fighters at the start of the year to a force of 5,000 men, including administrators and financiers; the base is the first to have been directly established by Daesh outside Syria and Iraq, and brings the terrorists closer to Europe.
It remains unclear if the Daesh affiliate in Libya has access to commercial airliners or fighter jets.
However, according to the US-based news website Bretibart, “Islamist militias in the country who share ideals with the jihadi group do have fighter jets in service. The 'Libya Dawn' Islamist coalition possesses Mig-25 interceptors and Mig-23s, fighter planes that originated in the Soviet Union. The Islamist rebels also have access to full-size commercial jets.”
Source: http://turkishweekly.net
ISIS Training Militants On Commercial Flight Simulators In Libya
Arabic media report claims the terror group, which has taken nearly complete control of the Mediterranean city of Sirte in Libya, is training pilots on large simulators brought in from abroad.
The Islamic State is reportedly training its fighters in Libya using civilian aviation simulators, Libyan military officials told Arabic daily Asharq al-Awsat on Wednesday.
The training was being conducted in the city of Sirte, which has been under ISIS control for a several months. An estimated 3,000 ISIS fighters are currently based in Libya.
According to the sources, ISIS was using at least one flight simulator, the source of which was unknown. "The simulator is about as large as a small car, and simulates every facet of flight including air-to-ground communications," the sources said.
The officials initially believed that ISIS had attained the simulator during the looting of former Gaddafi airfields, but were later made aware that the simulators were new. This means that the simulators were brought from abroad.
A Libyan army commander said that a group of ISIS commanders, including former Libyan army officers, attained the simulator in October.
Libyan security officials were also reportedly aware of an additional simulator, which is aimed at training fighter pilots.
A security official who was part of the team tracking ISIS activities in North Africa was cited in the article as saying that there is concrete information that ISIS was training pilots to fly civilian aircraft in Libya.
The terror organization is close to controlling the entire city of Sirte, which would give it dangerous access to the Mediterranean - directly threatening southern Europe.
"Libyan Air Force planes, that were not sufficiently armed, have previously attempte to destroy at least one ISIS training camp, but the attacks achieved little results," the official said. He also claimed that the aerial attacks only caused ISIS to move its facilities from one place to another, in order to defend them from the strikes.
According to the paper, researchers in the Middle East have already passed on information about ISIS's qualitative advancements, and its progress towards the Mediterranean.
Story, comments, video and photos: http://www.ynetnews.com
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