AMMAN: The hard-line group ISIS has released what it said was an interview with a Jordanian pilot captured last week after his plane crashed during U.S.-led coalition bombing in eastern Syria.

It was not possible to independently verify the interview published in the group’s English-language online magazine Dabiq in which 1st Lt. Maaz al-Kassasbeh was quoted as saying his F-16 fighter was “struck by a heat seeking missile.”

“I heard and felt its hit. The other Jordanian pilot in the mission contacted me from a participating jet and told me that I was struck and that fire was coming out of the rear nozzle of my engine,” Kassasbeh said.

He made brief comments about life at his base, sharing meals with hundreds of U.S. personnel.

“The Americans sometimes have dinner with us and eat mansaf [a traditional Arab dish] which they like alot. Their talk does not include details about operations because of matters of secrecy and security.”

Jordan declined comment on the interview, the first since ISIS published photographs purporting to show his capture. Kassasbeh, who comes from a prominent Jordanian family, is the first pilot from the coalition known to have been captured by ISIS.

His jet crashed last week in a rural area in Syria’s Raqqa province, the group’s stronghold. Jordan’s government at first said the crash could have been the result of a missile attack but later it said that there was no proof.

Kasaesbeh’s capture shocked the country. Several politicians and lawmakers called on the government to pull out of the coalition. The authorities said his capture would not weaken its resolve to fight militant Islamist groups.

In the new issue of its magazine, ISIS also praised the attack on a cafe and ensuing hostage crisis in Sydney, Australia this month. Two hostages and the gunman, Man Haron Monis, were killed.

Monis was a 50-year-old Iranian-born, self-styled cleric with a lengthy criminal history. While holding the hostages, Monis made two strange demands: to be delivered an ISIS flag and to speak directly with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

ISIS had called on Muslims to kills disbelievers in the West, including Australia

 

THE DAILY STAR