Although the majority of footage, photo appearing on Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and so on, some of the images coming from Syria proved to be fake, as those allegedly showing a Syrian Arab Air Force plane hit by surface to air missiles or the L-39 crashing into the ground after being hit by Free Syrian Army’s anti-aircraft fire.
That said, take the following with grain of salt.
Brought to my attention by Bjørn Holst Jespersen the following image was uploaded on the Syrian Revolution Memory Project Flickr photostream. The photograph, whose EXIF can be found here, is the last of a set reportedly describing a day spent by Abu Jafaar “the citizen journalist” with the Al-Farouk Brigade of the FSA.
It was taken on Aug. 31 (at least, according to the EXIF), even if the caption says it was shot on Aug. 6 (noteworthy, all pictures in the set have the same caption: “Homs, Syria August 6, 2012”).
Anyway, the photograph clearly shows an F-5 Tiger fighter jet. Among the various operators of this kind of aircraft, Iran and Turkey are the closer ones.
Provided that the image was really taken in Syria, over Homs or elsewhere in the country, and considered that Tehran has recently admitted it is helping Assad against the rebels (recent imagery even disclosed the presence of Iran Air and Mahan Air planes at Damascus airport) there are some chances that the plane depicted in the photograph is really an Iranian F-5.
Maybe it’s a bit far fetched but this photo could prove Iran is a bit more actively than thought taking part to the air war over Syria. Even if it could be risky and surely destined to be unveiled quite soon by drones and intelligence gathering platforms spying on Assadists movements.
Less likely, the image could have been taken near the border with Turkey, thus showing a TuAF NF-5…
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So the aircraft depicted shows clearly wing tip fuel tanks, it is not an F-5 Tiger. Maybe it is an T-38 or a NF-5.
No expert, to say the least, but couldn’t those be rockets, in which case it *could* be an F-5?
T-38s don’t have tip tanks or missile rails. On the other hand F-5As and Bs do have the tip tanks,the rest have rails
Could be the indigenous Iranian fighter Saeqeh ??
http://defensetech.org/2011/09/12/irans-f-5-knockoff-fighter-now-at-squadron-strength/
interesting, I thought those twin tail planes were modified F-5s. But whether a knock of or not, testing them in combat is one thinkable reason to deploy those.
And lack of loyal pilots in the Syrian gov airforce would be a thinkable reason for Iran to involve their airforce. But with the photo still unverified these speculations remain unfounded.
i read some where that turkey sent their fighter jets to the Syrian border coz some of the Syrian helicopters violated the borders
so this might be one of those fighters
did you forget the syrian air defence hunted down a turkish rf-4e over the sea? do you seriously think a mediocre trainer like f-5 can survive to reach homs? probably an asset from iran, operated by syrian pilots.
To reach Syria it would have had to violate either iraqui or turkish airspace, so how did it do it?
Iraq might well turn a blind eye.
From David Cameron’s address to the UN today,
“The most worrying factor is the inevitable spillover to Iraq. There, the Shiite prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, has moved closer to the Shiite fundamentalist regime in Iran since the withdrawal of the US military at the end of 2011. Al-Maliki fears that Sunni fundamentalists in Syria might replace the Assad regime and then support Sunni insurgent elements in Iraq. Flights from Iran now freely cross Iraqi air space, ferrying weapons and troops to support the Syrian dictatorship.”
and here is a fine question:
Why F-5? IRICGAF has a hand full of Su-25Ks, why using F-5 belonging to IRIAF instead of using frogfots?
syrian government never gonna risk such “valuable assets” for random close air support missions. possibility of military intervention is a good reason to secure “them” on fortified hangars for now.
Mo has a point and also it would be unlikely that an old F5 could have a big impact on operations. And the risk for iran, in case it was shot down, would be too great because the world would have evidence of its involvment. Not something iran would like to happen.
Maybe, but Iran has been pretty open about its involvement, and on this seems to have the backing of Russia and China.