Jordan: “We will eliminate Isil over death of our martyr pilot”
Jordan has vowed to “eliminate” the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, as its war-planes joined coalition bombing raids of Isil territory for the third day in a row.
As the Prince of Wales touched down in the Jordanian capital Amman, in a show of international support, the country’s interior minister said the air force’s missions against Isil bases since the death of Lt Moaz al-Kasaesbeh were just the start of operations to wipe the jihadists out.
“Jordan’s history testifies that we do not forget vengeance, now matter how long it takes,” Lt Gen Hussein al-Majali, told a state newspaper.
“”The day of the hero, martyr pilot’s assassination is a turning point in Jordan’s history, in facing this horrific crime that was committed by the cowardly terrorist organisation.”
The bombing raids took no account of Isil’s claims that coalition strikes on Friday had killed Kayla Mueller, 26, an American aid volunteer who had been in their captivity since 2013.
Local activists reported that she may have been taken prior to the latest raids to an Isil base outside the town of Raqqa, the group’s capital in Syria.
In those raids, at least 30 Isil jihadists were killed, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, which monitors deaths in the civil war from Britain.
Coalition aircraft, including from Jordan, took part in 11 more raids on Syria, including Raqqa, between Friday night and Saturday morning, and 15 on Isil positions in Iraq.
Jordan said that its targets included ammunition depots, training camps and an Isil communications tower.
However, the group gave no supporting evidence of Miss Mueller’s death, other than photographs of bombed-out wreckage, and her parents said they hoped she might still be alive. They also made a direct appeal to the jihadists to contact them.
“This news leaves us concerned, yet, we are still hopeful that Kayla is alive,” they said in a statement.
“We have sent you a private message and ask that you respond to us privately. We know that you have read our previous communications, John Cantlie made references to them in October.
“You told us that you treated Kayla as your guest, as your guest her safety and well-being remains your responsibility.” John Cantlie, the British freelance journalist who has been used to make propaganda videos by Isil, is now the last known remaining western hostage, if Miss Mueller’s death is confirmed.
She was seized in August 2013 while leaving a hospital in Aleppo, northern Syria, where she had gone to offer help. She had spent several years volunteering in India, Israel and the Palestinian territories, before being drawn to work with Syrian refugees.
Isil’s statement claiming her death was part of an escalating war of words and deeds with Jordan, which reacted with fury to the pictures last week showing Lt Kasaesbeh being burned alive.
King Abdullah II immediately threatened revenge, while two jihadists in Jordanian prisons were executed in retaliation the following morning, including Sajida al-Rishawi, who had been offered up in exchange for the pilot.
The killing may have backfired on Isil at least in the first instance, with a swell of support for the king’s stance on supporting the coalition.
In the long term, it opens up the possibility of retaliatory attacks in a country sceptical about joining what it regards as western wars against fellow Sunni Muslims.
“The ongoing and potentially open-ended campaign against Isil – to which Jordan has re-doubled its commitment after the murder of Kasaesbeh – exposes Jordan to the risk of domestic terrorist blowback,” one diplomat said.
“At the same time the state is susceptible to contagion from the direction of extremism within Sunni Islam amongst the neighbours – even though domestically it doesn’t have the Sunni/Shia schism to wrestle with.”
The visit by the Prince of Wales is partly intended to shore up Britain’s longstanding alliance with Jordan, whose boundaries it helped to set after the First World War.
He is well acquainted with the half-British King Abdullah, who trained at Sandhurst and speaks English as a first language, and who now has to balance his alliance with the US-led coalition with trying to contain a growing number of Sunni extremists within its own borders.
According to a 2014 poll by the Pew Research Center, only 12 percent of Jordanians have a favourable view of the United States.
In piece of potential good news for the coalition, which is desperate for the war on Isil to be seen as part of a broader fightback against the group by the Arab world’s Sunni majority, the United Arab Emirates looked set to send its fighter jets back in action last night.
It had suspended air operations after Lt Moaz al-Kasaesbeh was captured, saying the lack of close air-rescue facilities was putting pilots at risk.
Following Lt Kasaesbeh’s death, the United States agreed to move helicopters from Kuwait to Iraqi Kurdistan, close to the current front lines.
A UAE statement said a squadron of F-16 fighter jets was on its way to Jordan to offer support.
THE TELEGRAPH