May 16, 2014

Last week, the Syrian air force attacked trucks carrying relief supplies belonging to Turkey's Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) at the entrance to Aleppo. A Syrian national was killed and another was wounded in the attack. This could of course be seen as a routine event in Syria, but there are strong indications it wasn’t.

First, the Syrian regime is operating its air force actively and effectively. Assad is using his planes and helicopters to sow fear and panic in towns under siege, to intimidate the rebels and to provide support for his own troops. It becomes easy to understand why the opposition badly wants air defense missiles.

The second interesting point was the targeting of IHH trucks. Although IHH is a relief NGO accredited with the UN, we know there is much controversy around its name, especially because of its delivery of assistance to opposition groups.

A small convoy can be attacked from the air under two circumstances.

First, IHH trucks were identified as a target of opportunity by Syrian planes and attacked. In other words, the planes saw the trucks during their routine flight and opened fire. This shows us that the Syrian air force is able to use its air space without any impediments, and intelligence-communications needed for target identification were operational.