Al Nusrah Front publishes photos from raid on Syrian regime airbase

Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda’s official branch in the Levant, announced earlier today that the Abu Duhour airbase in the Idlib province of Syria has been completely “liberated.” Along with its jihadist allies, Al Nusrah had long contested the regime for control of the airbase.

Hours after declaring victory, Al Nusrah posted a series of photos and videos from the operation. Below are just some of the images published on Al Nusrah’s official Twitter feeds.

The first photos show captured regime MIG aircraft and helicopters. There is no indication at this point that airplanes or helicopters are operational:

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The following two images show the regime fighters captured by Al Nusrah’s forces. The al Qaeda arm initially claimed that more than 60 fighters had been captured:

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The remaining images below all show scenes from the fighting:

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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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6 Comments

  • Dennis says:

    Sad day for Assad, can only hope that those left to die for the cause had enough nationalism in them to destroy or incapacitate all planes and other” dual use” aircraft. All about the lesser of two or three evils. By the looks of those left behind, I would imagine they were either volunteers or those of lesser value. I actually admire them in a way, as they knew the end price dispite what propaganda they were exposed to. Alexander the great had such men from this very area, we are wise to let these folks settle their differences amongst themselves and then if we have to, go in and wipe up what Obama called the j.v.team, as that is what will inevitably be left of all their core fighters.

  • BSabre says:

    From the looks of the aircraft in the photos, none of them appear operational. The Mi-8 has obvious damage to the cockpit area (windscreen shot out) and there is a tangle of wiring around the mounting stubs for rocket canisters. The MiG-21s have open and missing access panels, and the field of MiG-23/27s also have pieces missing from them. Anything flyable probably left the airfield weeks ago.

  • Jason says:

    Sad day for Assad? Don’t worry about his feelings….he’ll just drop another chlorine gas barrel bomb on a residential area to make him feel better.

  • Shanon says:

    Well said my friend….well said.

  • mike merlo says:

    the prisoners look haggard & under nourished

  • MacRaguel says:

    Erm… best go check your facts int agencies and the UN inspectors all say most likely the rebels launched the attacks

Iraq

Islamic state

Syria

Aqap

Al shabaab

Boko Haram

Isis