Jordan Hits ISIL in Syria Two Years after Pilot Burned Alive

Jordan said on Saturday its warplanes have bombed ISIL group positions in southern Syria two years after one of its pilots was captured and killed by the ‘jihadists’.

The kingdom, part of an international coalition battling ISIL in Syria and Iraq, has intensified its strikes since ISIL captured Maaz al-Kassasbeh when his plane crashed in Syria in December 2014.

On February 3, 2015, the group released footage showing the pilot being burned alive in a cage, and Friday’s strikes came on the second anniversary of the video’s release.

“Jordanian Air Force planes, in memory of our martyrs who have fallen in our war against terrorism, on Friday evening targeted various positions of the terrorist gang Daesh in southern Syria,” the military said in a statement, using the Arabic acronym for ISIL.

It said that the strikes against targets including a captured former Syrian army base killed and wounded several ISIL members and destroyed an arms depot, a car bomb workshop and a barracks.

Jordanian forces used drones and precision-guided munitions in the operation, which was part of the “kingdom’s efforts to eradicate the terrorist group”, it said.