This Is What the World’s Bloodiest War Looks Like #11
A photo a day from the Syrian civil war
by DAVID AXE
Thirty months. More than 100,000 dead. Millions displaced. The Syrian civil war is by far the bloodiest war in all the world today—and it could only get worse as the political, economic, humanitarian and sectarian crises it has spawned spill into neighboring countries.
One of Syrian Pres. Bashar Al Assad’s biggest advantages over the ragtag Free Syrian Army is his air force, composed of hundreds of Russian-made jets and helicopters. The FSA lacks the air-defense missiles, radars and expertise to reliably shoot down jets, but the rebels’ machine guns are just barely capable of destroying low- and slow-flying helicopters.
Col. Zeyad Haaj Abayed, an air force defector, is teaching rebels to aim for the tails of regime aircraft as they fly away. In this way the FSA has shot down potentially dozens of Mi-8 and Mi-17 helicopters flying attack and resupply missions over the front lines.
But the best tactic, Abayed says, is to attack regime airports and wreck aircraft while they’re still on the ground. Former rebel fighter Juma Al Qassim gave us these photos of a pair of regime copters destroyed at Taftanaz airport in northern Syria in early 2013.
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