Jordan says its warplanes have carried out their first air strikes on Islamic State (IS) targets since the militants released a video showing the killing of a captured Jordanian pilot.
On their way back, the planes flew over the village of pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh.
Their flight coincided with a visit to the village by Jordanian King Abdullah II, who was meeting the pilot's family.
The king has vowed to the step up the fight against IS. Jordan is part of a US-led coalition bombing the militants.
Lt Kasasbeh was captured by the militants last year after his F-16 fighter jet crashed in Syria. IS this week released a video showing the pilot being burned alive in a cage, sparking outrage and calls for revenge in Jordan.
State television pictures on Thursday showed the king sitting sombre-faced with Saif al-Kasasbeh, the pilot's father, at a gathering in Aya village, near the city of Karak, south of the capital Amman.
The Jordanian aircraft flew over the pilot's tribal village, south of Amman
The king gestured to the skies as the warplanes flew overhead, the Associated Press news agency said.
Mr Kasasbeh told mourners that the aircraft were returning from a raid on Syria's Raqqa, the de facto capital of the militants' self-declared caliphate, which spans territory in Iraq and Syria.
While Jordan did not specify the location of the air strikes, a security official quoted by Reuters news agency said they had targeted IS in Syria.
However, anti-IS activists in Raqqa said there were no coalition air strikes in the city on Wednesday.
"The response of Jordan and its army after what happened to our dear son will be severe," the king said, after cutting short a trip to the US this week.
The army said in a statement that the air strikes were "just the beginning".
Failed suicide bomber Sajida al-Rishawi had been on death row in Jordan for nearly a decade
Jordan responded to the release of the gruesome video, which depicted the caged pilot engulfed in flames, by executing two convicts, including Sajida al-Rishawi, a failed female suicide bomber.
Jordan had earlier sought to secure the pilot's release in a swap involving Rishawi.
However, it is now believed that IS had killed the pilot a month ago. The BBC's Paul Adams in Amman says talk of an exchange appears to have been an IS tactic to string Jordan along and foster doubt among Jordanians over its role in the US-led coalition.
The US military said that the coalition had conducted a total of nine air strikes on IS-targets in Iraq, and three on targets in Syria, since Wednesday.
The strikes hit IS units near the Syrian town of Kobane, and in seven Iraqi cities including Fallujah, Kirkuk and Mosul, the Combined Joint Task Force said in a statement.
Joint resolve
On Thursday, Mr Kasasbeh praised the king and condemned the militants.
"You are a wise monarch," Reuters quotes him as saying. "These criminals violated the rules of war in Islam and they have no humanity. Even humanity disowns them."
Mr Kasasbeh had earlier said the Jordanian government must do "more than just executing prisoners".
"I call for [IS] to be eliminated completely," he told reporters on Wednesday.
Earlier this week, King Abdullah and US President Barack Obama reaffirmed their joint resolve to destroy the group at a meeting in the White House before the monarch returned to Jordan.
Jordan is one of four Arab states to have taken part in the anti-IS air strikes in Syria. The other countries are Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
US officials told the BBC on Wednesday that the UAE had suspended its involvement in the strikes after Lt Kasasbeh was captured in December.
The New York Times quoted officials as saying the UAE wanted the Pentagon to improve its search-and-rescue efforts in Iraq before it resumed bombing missions.
Commenti
Posta un commento