A fighter on the front lines is pictured with a Browning machine gun.
Correction: The article initially described the machine gun as a M2 Browning, but it is a 1919 Browning. The article has been updated to note this change.
The Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), an al Qaeda-affiliated Uighur jihadist group, has released photos from the fighting in the Al Ghab plain in northwest Syria.
In one of the pictures, a Browning 1919 machine gun can be seen set up near the front lines of the fighting. It is unclear how the jihadist group obtained the weapon, but it may have been taken during fighting between the jihadists and US-support rebel groups. Al Nusrah Front, an official branch of al Qaeda, turned on two US-backed rebel groups in northern Syria last year.
However, the weapon also could have been provided by US-supported groups that are allied with the TIP and Al Nusrah. Rebel groups supplied by the US are fighting alongside jihadists in the area.
The Uighur al Qaeda group also claims to have captured a downed Syrian reconnaissance drone, which can be seen below.
For more information on the TIP’s role in the current fighting in northwestern Syria, see Threat Matrix report, Turkistan Islamic Party shows fighters on frontlines in northwestern Syria.
TIP photo showing the captured drone:
