Syrian warplanes have been notoriously inaccurate in attacking ISIS targets inside Syria, killing large numbers of civilians. Yesterday’s strikes on the Iraqi side of the border have reportedly ended the same way, with locals saying at least 90 civilians were killed in the attacks, and scores others wounded.
The Syrian planes attacked several Iraqi towns along the border, all under ISIS control, and reportedly hit marketplaces and gas stations in those cities, killing many bystanders.
Syria’s state media denied the claim of civilian deaths as “baseless,” though Anbar’s Provincial officials confirmed them, saying the planes bore Syrian flags and were unmistakably Syrian Air Force.
Parliament leader Sabah Karkhout slammed the airstrikes as a “barbarian attack” from Syria, and the civilian deaths threaten to widen the sectarian divide further, as Syria’s government is Alawite (Shi’ite) and the Anbar towns are exclusively Sunni.
Syria and Iraq have been coordinating against ISIS recently, though intelligence sources say it is unclear if the Syrian airstrikes were part of any agreement between Iraq and Syria to strike across the border.
Syrian aircraft use the old dumb bombs and rockets, not guided weapons. They are too expensive for them, even if they could get them and even if their aircraft were modified to use them.
We seem to have forgotten that air power of the older sort from Vietnam and before was inaccurate to the point of absurd. In WW2 they routinely missed whole cities.
This is what one must expect of fast jets dropping iron bombs, especially with poorly trained fast jet pilots dumping them. We can't expect anything different from Syrian air involvement. They can't do it.
This story must be taken with a grain of salt. Syria has just been the victim of multiple Israeli airstrikes which represent a much greater threat to Damascus than far away Ambar province. It would seem to me that the Syrian air force and air defenses would be concentrating on protecting their own airspace as a #1 priority instead of going off to bomb in Iraq.
Maybe ISIS can call up their buddies the Israelis to help them out? After all they get away with bombing whomever and wherever they damn please with no apparent repercussions.
is it not more likely that the "syrian" air attacks on Iraqi targets are simply false flag syrian aircraft attacks on civilians intended just like the faked for video and false flag nerve gas attacks to undermine respect for Syria? M\
We're supposed to think that US air strikes would be more accurate and involve fewer civilian casualties, but high explosives launched at high speeds, even with precision guidance, have a tendency to create a lot of collateral damage. The USG is just better at disguising civilian casualties by calling all males between age ten and sixty "militants."