Syrians say US used secretive ‘ninja’ missile again in Idlib

A US “ninja” missile was used towards a truck in Salqin, Syria, locals mentioned on Tuesday. That is the R9X missile which is a modified Hellfire missile that may be launched from US armed drones, such because the Reaper. The US has used it round a half-dozen occasions in northern Syria towards people linked to al-Qaeda or extremists. The missile, as a result of it has swords that come out instead of a warhead, carves up the goal on impression, leaving a bloody mess however not harming others close by.  Salqin is a city within the rolling hills close to the Turkish border, a couple of dozen kilometers from the border city of Reyhanli in Turkey. That is an space the place ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi additionally operated earlier than a US raid in October 2019. Actually, Barisha, the place Baghdadi was killed, is a couple of 30-kilometer drive from Salqin. A very good driver can do that journey in 45 minutes on winding roads. The world has been run by extremists for a lot of the Syrian Civil Battle and Turkey now occupies many areas round there. Turkey additionally illegally occupied Afrin in northern Syria, an space it ethnically cleansed of Kurds and despatched Syrian extremists it recruited to manage. That is now a scorching mattress of extremist teams which have origins or hyperlinks generally to al-Qaeda. These teams function brazenly beneath Turkish safety. Turkey is a member of NATO however many ISIS members have discovered refuge in Turkey or transited by means of Turkey to elements of Syria. Turkey additionally hosts Hamas terrorists. The US makes use of the “ninja” missiles on this a part of Syria allegedly to keep away from collateral injury and proof that the US is even working there. Nonetheless, US drones have been seen on video, and it’s an open secret that extremists listed below are on wished lists within the US.  Syrians within the space reportedly mentioned nobody was killed within the current assault. This might level to a failure of US intelligence or a purposeful marketing campaign of lies from locals to cover what actually occurred. The standard ugly pictures of the stays of the folks struck by the flying sword-bomb haven’t been proven. Specialists who observe the usage of the “ninja” weapon level to similarities to a December 3 and September 14 incident, in accordance with the account Inside Syria on-line.

Update4: a brand new picture from the drone strike scene reveal that the AGM-114r9x missile has didn’t hit its goal. White Helmets say an individual was injured on account of the strike. pic.twitter.com/kNWX335tj3

— Inside Syria (@WithinSyriaBlog) December 30, 2020

We reported on the usage of this weapon in June and July of this 12 months.  It seems the missile failed to seek out its goal accurately. It isn’t clear who the goal was.