Lebanese Army Finds ISIS Anti-Aircraft Missile Cache: Could Passenger Jets Be Hit?
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Aug 22, 2017
Does ISIS have the capability of taking out a civilian passenger jet? According to an alarming new report by Reuters the answer appears to be yes.
The Islamic State has long been rumored as in possession of surface-to-air missiles, and now it appears a US ally is providing ground level confirmation of what might be a worst case nightmare scenario come true. The Lebanese Army has recently been engaged in a fierce campaign to root out ISIS terrorists from the Arsal border pocket – a northeast region of Lebanon bordering Syria which has seen fighting rage since 2014. As we previously reported, the operation is receiving some level of assistance from US special forces advisers as well as coordination from Hezbollah, while at the same time the Syrian Army is attacking from the Syrian side of the border in the Qalaman mountains.
On Monday, Reuters issued the following report based on official statements of the Lebanese Army:
Lebanon’s army found anti-aircraft missiles among with a cache of weapons in an area abandoned by Islamic State militants, it said on Monday.
The arms cache also included mortars, medium and heavy machine guns, assault rifles, grenades, anti-tank weapons, anti-personnel mines, improvised explosive devices and ammunition.
Not only did Lebanon’s army – which is working under the advisement of the Pentagon for the operation – confirm ISIS possession of anti-aircraft missiles, but last week it reported to have uncovered a similarly stocked Nusra (al-Qaeda in Syria) cache as well. According to the same Reuters report:
A Hezbollah offensive last month forced militants from the Nusra Front group, formerly al Qaeda’s official Syrian branch, to quit an adjacent enclave on the border for a rebel-held part of Syria.
On Friday, the Lebanese army said it had discovered surface-to-air missiles in a weapons cache left by the Nusra militants in an area captured by Hezbollah and then taken over by the army.
Such anti-aircraft missiles, commonly called MANPADS (“man-portable air-defense system”: heat seeking shoulder fired missiles capable of hitting targets flying at anywhere between 10,000 and 15,000 feet), have appeared on the Syrian battlefield in recent years in the hands armed opposition groups supported by the West and Gulf states, including various FSA and Islamist factions like Ansar al-Islam Front (operating in the south) and Ahrar al-Sham (operating in the north of Syria).
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