Al Qaeda downs fighter jet with surface to air missile in Yemen

Independent:
Al-Qaeda has acquired sophisticated surface-to-air missiles, The Independent has learned, which were used to shoot down an Emirati fighter jet in a dangerous escalation of the civil war raging in Yemen.

A French-made Mirage jet, flying in the air force of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), crashed into a mountain side just outside the southern port city of Aden on 14 March. Authorities claimed that the crash was “the result of a technical malfunction”, but sources dispute this, claiming that the jet was shot down with Russian munitions. The incident raises the spectre of other jihadist branches accessing sophisticated surface-to-air missiles in Syria, Iraq and further afield.
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It is possible the missile may have come from the Libya inventory that was lost when the Obama administration and its allies failed to secure the Libyan weapons depots after the fall of the government.   It was one of a series of screwups that followed the overthrow of Ghadaffi.

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