ISIS terrorists in the city of Sirte, northern Libya, are training to fly planes using at least one flight simulator according to military sources in the North African state. The sources added that there is a prevailing belief amongst investigators that the device was seized from the training departments of Gaddafi’s looted airports. Other sources stated that “It’s a modern simulator, which may have arrived from abroad”, noting that it was roughly the size of a small car. The simulator is complete with a steering wheel to practice take-off and landing, a radar screen, and a communications device to contact the control tower.

A senior Libyan military officer said in an interview during a recent visit to Cairo that a group of ISIS leaders, amongst them retired officers from Libya and a number of neighbouring countries, obtained the first simulator device that specialises in civilian planes last October. Security services have gathered new information from Sirte during the last two weeks suggesting that another fighter jet simulator had arrived. However, its type remains unknown.

A security official working in a team that follows the activity of ISIS in North Africa said that information about ISIS militants training to fly civilian planes in Libya exists and added that the Libyan Air Force which lacks armaments attempted to hit at least one base where the training is believed to take place several times but that the operations were unsuccessful.