While the U.S. and Europe mull what steps, if any, to take in intervening against President Assad’s brutal crackdown on Syria’s opposition movement, it seems as though the Free Syrian Army has ramped up efforts to take control of the country’s airspace.
Word comes via Twitter (so it should be taken with a grain of salt) that the Free Syrian Army has successfully shot down one of that country’s MiGs in the northern suburb of Hama, a city in the west of the country and only 30 miles from Homs.
Additional claims have been made that another MiG was shot down in Idlib, a city of less than 100 thousand that has seen heavy shelling by the Syrian army and has been the site of several violent clases and car bomb attacks by anti-government forces.
Both attacks are attributed to the Idlib Free Syrian Army battalion Shuhadaa Jabal Alzawiyah (Martyrs of Jabal Alzawiyah) at this time.
A MiG was shot down near the northern #Hama suburbs. A MiG and a helicopter were shot in Abu Althuhoor near the airport. #Idlib #Syria #FSA
— Abdullah Aldahhan (@SyrianSmurf) September 4, 2012
Both Hama and Homs are currently epicenters of the opposition movement against President Assad—Hama was the site of a notorious massacre in 1982, when some 25,000 Syrians were killed during that country’s Islamic uprising under orders of then president Hafez al-Assad.
Several videos of the alleged wreckage of the MiG has been posted via YouTube—one even claims that a pilot of one of the downed aircraft was shot in mid-air once ejecting.
Meanwhile, reports have emerged that the FSA is prepared to consider both airports in Damascus and Aleppo legitimate targets as of September 10.
Could this be an effort by the FSA to bolster support for a no-fly zone from Western nations, similar to that implemented by NATO during Libya’s ouster of al-Gaddafi?
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