Al Nusrah Front video showcases more American-made TOW missiles

The Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda’s official branch in Syria, has released another video showing its fighters using American-made TOW missiles. As The Long War Journal reported earlier this week, Al Nusrah released a video featuring a TOW missile attack in the early hours of the jihadists’ newly-launched offensive against Syrian regime forces in the city of Idlib.

Al Nusrah continues to use the weapons against Bashar al Assad’s forces. Earlier today, Al Nusrah released the video shown above on one of its official Twitter feeds. The fighter, whose face is obscured, fires two TOW missiles on Syrian tanks. The video footage shows one of the tanks creeping above the horizon before it is destroyed.

It is unclear how many TOW missiles Al Nusrah has in its possession. But it is clear from the videos and pictures published on social media that the group has a stockpile of the weapons, which were captured from Western-backed rebel groups. Al Nusrah first featured the missiles in its propaganda last year.

Below are some screen shots from the video released earlier today. As with all of Al Nusrah’s propaganda from the battle of Idlib, the video is branded with both the logo for Al Nusrah’s so-called “correspondents network,” as well as the logo for Jaysh al Fateh, the jihadist coalition that seeks to take control of the city.

Screen shots from Al Nusrah Front propaganda video

The Al Nusrah Front fighter fires the TOW missile for the first time:

Screen Shot 2015-03-26 at 3.25.26 PM

This screen shot shows the missile moments after launch:

Screen Shot 2015-03-26 at 3.25.54 PM

The first target is destroyed:

Screen Shot 2015-03-26 at 3.26.20 PM

The fighter communicates with his comrades, likely to coordinate on hitting the next target:

Screen Shot 2015-03-26 at 3.27.05 PM

A Syrian tank creeps over the horizon:

Screen Shot 2015-03-26 at 3.28.14 PM

The fighter fires another TOW missile:

Screen Shot 2015-03-26 at 3.29.13 PM

The Syrian tank is destroyed:

Screen Shot 2015-03-26 at 3.29.40 PM

Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for FDD's Long War Journal.

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4 Comments

  • mike merlo says:

    pleased to see USA made weapons being used the way they were meant to be used

  • Daniel Lopez says:

    3 cheers for the USA! Nice job arming al-Qaeda… I never saw this coming (SARCASM!)

  • Vyom says:

    Free advertisements of US weapons for prospective buyers!!! Any one interested …

  • Barry says:

    weapons are captured and traded in every conflict. you can even see it in movies, like Black Hawk Down, where Delta boys used the skinnys’ truck artillery. Some abandoned Israeli trucks from Lebanon made it into Syria, with Hebrew markings. No way IDF would allow themselves to be ID’d so easily. They were not supporting either side until recently.

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