Jordan vows to eradicate ISIS
Jordan yesterday vowed further retaliation against the Islamic State group for the burning alive of one of its pilots, as thousands rallied in Amman in solidarity with his grieving family.
Jordan said dozens of its jet fighters struck ISIS on Thursday, and had widened their campaign from Syria to include targets in neighbouring Iraq.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh told CNN the operation was "the beginning of our retaliation over this horrific and brutal murder of our brave young pilot."
Earlier this week, ISIS released a video of the gruesome killing of airman Maaz al-Kassasbeh, whose death has sparked grief and deep anger in Jordan.
Meanwhile, ISIS yesterday claimed that a female American hostage had been killed in an air strike in Syria by the US-led coalition.
In a statement posted on jihadist websites, the group said the woman was buried beneath the rubble after a raid by a Jordanian warplane in Raqa, the self-proclaimed capital of the militant group.
The statement did not show any pictures of a body and there was no independent confirmation of her reported death.
T he Syrian Observatory for Human Rights yesterday said more than 30 jihadists in the Islamic State group were killed yesterday in air strikes on Syria by warplanes of the US-led coalition.
"At least 30 jihadists, and certainly more, were killed in coalition raids on Friday against positions and depots sheltering military vehicles and tanks, east and west of the city of Raqa," the Britain-based monitor said.
In Amman crowds of people waved Jordanian flags and pictures of Kassasbeh.
"We are all Maaz... We are all Jordan," they chanted, some holding placards aloft that read: "Yes to punishment. Yes to the eradication of terrorism."
Holding a portrait of the pilot with the words "Maaz the martyr of righteousness", Jordan's Queen Rania joined the marchers after weekly prayers at the Al-Husseini mosque.
Judeh declined to reveal Jordan's military plans but said it would hit the militants with all its might.
"We're going to go after them and we will eradicate them... We are at the forefront. This is our fight," he told CNN.
Jordan has conducted regular air raids against ISIS across the border in Syria as part of a US-led campaign against the Sunni extremist group.
Asked by Fox News in a separate interview if Jordan was now also targeting ISIS in Iraq, he replied: "That's right. Today, more Syria than Iraq. It is an ongoing effort."
He added: "They are in Iraq and they are in Syria and therefore you have to target them wherever they are."
American F-16 and F-22 jets provided security to the Jordanian fighter planes, with additional support from refuelling tankers and surveillance aircraft, US officials said.
On Wednesday, in response to the killing, Jordan executed two Iraqi convicts -- female would-be suicide bomber Sajida al-Rishawi and Al-Qaeda operative Ziad al-Karboli.
ISIS had offered to spare Kassasbeh's life and free Japanese journalist Kenji Goto -- who was later beheaded -- in exchange for Rishawi. Jordanian television suggested Kassasbeh was killed on January 3, before ISIS offered to spare him and free Goto in return for Rishawi's release.
Meanwhile India's external affairs ministry yesterday said a group of 11 Indian nurses trapped in the fighting in Iraq have been rescued and will return home today.
The nurses have been handed over to Indian officials in the Kurdish city of Irbil.
Last July, 46 Indian nurses, working at a hospital in the northern city of Tikrit and trapped in the fighting were freed and handed over to Indian officials. Reports say some 40 Indians are still being held hostage by jihadist fighters in Iraq.
On Thursday, the US military said it was deploying search and rescue planes to northern Iraq in a move designed to shorten the response time needed to reach pilots who end up in ISIS-held territory.
Last year, ISIS seized swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq and declared a "caliphate" in areas under its control, imposing its brutal interpretation of Islam and committing widespread atrocities.
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