When Syrian opposition groups went on the attack in late November, ultimately toppling the brutal regime of Syrian strongman Bashar Al-Assad, an iconic US Air Force warplane made a brief appearance over the fast-moving front line.
At least one Fairchild A-10 Thunderbolt II – the Cold War tank-killer also known as the Warthog, or alternatively just the Hog – was spotted flying low over US-backed fighters in eastern Syria. That A-10 didn’t actually fire its weapons in anger, however. Indeed, the Warthog’s desert cameo belies the type’s primary mission in the Middle East in the last five years of its five-decade service.
