TEHRAN – Arab media reports disclosed that the US is training militants at an air force base in Arizona to prepare them for impending air strikes on Syria.
Arabic-language media in Lebanon reported that the US, which has been leading a so-called international coalition in conducting airstrikes against ISIL, is training Middle-Eastern terrorists to fly fighter jets.
The sources added that the training is taking place on the aging British BAC 167 Strikemaster training jet in the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range along the Mexican border in Arizona.
Also cited in the report was the Boeing A-10 Thunderbolt II, a twin-engine aircraft meant for air support and bombing, which it was suggested may be delivered to pilots in the Syrian rebel forces at some later point.
While the identities of the jet fighter trainees has remained confidential, the US has been amassing ties with various entities and terrorist groups in the fight against the Syrian people, and government.
After the US-led coalition against the ISIL declared its creation, Iran lashed out at the western states for pursuing a double-standard policy towards campaign against terrorism in various countries.
NATO heads of state convened in the Welsh city of Newport on 4-5 September and US Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told foreign and defense ministers participating in the NATO summit that the US was forming a broad international coalition against the ISIL. Ministers from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Italy, Poland and Denmark met in Wales to hammer out a strategy for battling against the ISIL Takfiri terrorists wreaking havoc on Syria and Iraq.
The NATO members were later joined by a number of Arab countries in a meeting in Paris days later to form the so-called anti-ISIL coalition.
FNA
R.S