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| Jordan Confirms IS Captured Pilot after Plane Went down in Syria | |
| 2014-12-24 | |
| [AnNahar] Jordan's military on Wednesday confirmed that one of its pilots was captured by the Islamic State jihadist group after his plane went down in Syria, official news agency Petra said. "During a mission Wednesday morning conducted by several Jordanian Air Force planes against hideouts of the IS terrorist organization in the Raqa region, one of the planes went down and the pilot was taken hostage" by IS, Petra quoted a source from the military's general staff as saying. The official did not say why the plane went down, but both the jihadists and a monitoring group said it had been shot with an anti-aircraft missile. IS released photographs of the captured pilot and showed a military card identifying him as 26-year-old First Lieutenant Maaz al-Kassasbeh. His father Youssef was quoted by Jordanian news website Saraya as saying the family had been informed by the air force of his capture. He said he was told the military was "working to save his life" and that Jordan's ruler, King Abdullah II, was following events. "My other son met with the commander of the Jordanian air force who confirmed to him that my son Maaz was captured by IS," he said, calling for the jihadists to show "mercy and free my son". He said his son had served for six years in the air force.
“We have confirmed reports that IS members took a (non-Syrian) Arab pilot prisoner after shooting his plane down with an anti-aircraft missile near Raqa city,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The IS branch in Raqa published photographs on jihadist websites purporting to show its fighters holding the captured pilot, with a caption identifying him as Jordanian and giving his name. Several photographs were released, including one showing the pilot, wearing only a white shirt, being carried from a body of water by four men. Another showed him on land, surrounded by about a dozen armed men. Jordan’s military confirmed that one of its pilots was captured by the Islamic State jihadist group after his plane went down in Syria, official news agency Petra said. “During a mission Wednesday morning conducted by several Jordanian Air Force planes against hideouts of the IS terrorist organization in the Raqa region, one of the planes went down and the pilot was taken hostage” by IS, Petra quoted a source from the military’s general staff as saying Wednesday. The jihadists claimed to have shot down the warplane with a heat-seeking missile. The Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a wide network of sources inside Syria, had no further immediate information. There was no immediate reaction from authorities in Jordan. Jordan is among a number of countries that have joined the US-led alliance carrying out air strikes against IS after the jihadists seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Bahrain are taking part in the air strikes in Syria alongside the United States. Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France and The Netherlands have joined the raids in Iraq. Coalition warplanes have carried out regular strikes around Raqa, which IS has used as the headquarters for its self-proclaimed “caliphate.” | |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #2 Apparently CSAR isn't SOP. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2014-12-24 17:17 |
| #1 This strikes me as "large". History and geography will out. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2014-12-24 09:34 |