17 March 2016 - 07:22
Horrifying video shows an Iraqi plane crashed after being ‘shot out of the sky by ISIS extremists with anti-aircraft gun’

ISIS has claimed it has shot down an armed Iraqi Air Force Cessna with a 57mm anti-aircraft gun near the city of Kirkuk.

AhlulBayt News Agency - ISIS has claimed it has shot down an armed Iraqi Air Force Cessna with a 57mm anti-aircraft gun near the city of Kirkuk.

The terrorist organisation has released footage showing the aircraft banking at an extreme angle as it plummets to the ground.

The Iraqi Air Force has admitted it has lost the Cessna 208 Caravan, which was armed with Hellfire missiles, but blamed the crash on a 'technical fault'.

A second section of video shows the wreckage of a green aircraft with the tail number YI-119, which was from Squadron 3, Iraqi Air Force.

It was reported that among the wreckage was what appeared to be the rear section of a Hellfire missile.

The aircraft, which was carrying three crew was on a reconnaissance flight when it crashed.  

A military source told AFP that authorities had launched a search for the crew after the Cessna 208 Caravan went down near Kirkuk, around 135 miles north of Baghdad.

In its combat version, the aircraft can be used to launch laser-guided Hellfire missiles.

ISIS claimed in a statement posted on Twitter and a video released moments later that its fighters had shot the plane down, killing five crew members.

It said it used anti-aircraft artillery against a plane that had been on a bombing run against the city of Hawijah, a stronghold of the jihadists in Kirkuk province.

A video - which claims to show the moment the aircraft was shot down - released by the jihadist organisation shows the wreckage of a plane that could be a Cessna Caravan.

The footage also shows Isis fighters celebrating around body parts, some of which are floating in a small canal.

Iraqi forces have been making gains against the jihadists in recent months as they seek to reclaim territory seized by ISIS during a major offensive in 2014.

Hawijah, like other ISIS bastions across Iraq, is increasingly isolated as federal, Kurdish and tribal forces slowly close in.

The pressure has mounted on anti-ISIS forces to flush the jihadists out of the Hawijah area after a chemical attack was launched from the nearby village of Bashir last week.

The suspected mustard agent attack on the Kurdish-controlled town of Taza killed a three-year-old girl and left hundreds of people complaining of burns and respiratory problems.

The town's residents have demanded government action to retake Bashir, which is visible from the main road between Baghdad and Kirkuk, but has remained in ISIS hands since 2014.

Military coordination between the Kurdish peshmerga fighters and the government-allied Shiite Turkmen militia groups that also operate in the area has been difficult, slowing any operation against the jihadists.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has responded by promising that an operation against Bashir would get under way soon.

A senior military official in Kirkuk said that such an operation would further increase the pressure on Hawijah, which is IS's main remaining hub east of the Tigris.

ISIS shot down an Iraqi military helicopter on February 17, killing two crew members.



Video: https://youtu.be/4UueoPEfc4s





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