The image never shows up in the app. The http request in the browser network monitor always shows the status “Pending” for this request. If I open the same http link in another window/browser then the image shows up fine. The initiator of this request is ionic.bundle.js:10586.
Have you tried with the ng-src directive? Also you could try experimenting with an extra slash and dot at the front of your file path?
e.g. src="/img/smallStar.png" or src="./img/smallStar.png" or ng-src="{{ path }}" (where path is in the $scope)