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Jordan pledges to 'eradicate' ISIL after pilot immolation

Friday, 06 February 2015 1:18 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 06 February 2015 1:18 PM ]

Two Jordanian fighter jets are seen in the file photo.

Jordan has pledged to “eradicate” the Takfiri ISIL group after the immolation of a Jordanian pilot held hostage by the terrorist group.

"We're going to go after them and we will eradicate them.... We are at the forefront. This is our fight," Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said on Friday.

On Thursday, Jordan’s fighter jets carried out a series of new retaliatory air strikes against the hideouts of the ISIL terrorists currently operating in Syria and Iraq after the ruthless killing of the Jordanian pilot, Moaz al-Kassasbeh, at the hands of the ISIL last Tuesday.

Judeh said the air raids heralded "the beginning of” Jordan’s “retaliation over this horrific and brutal murder of our brave young pilot.”

Jordan is part of a so-called US-led military coalition that has been purportedly bombing militant targets in both Syria and Iraq since last year.

"We're upping the ante. We're going after them wherever they are, with everything that we have. But it's not the beginning, and it's certainly not the end," Judeh said.

A video released last Tuesday showed 26-year-old Kassasbeh dressed in an orange jumpsuit and surrounded by flames of fire inside a metal cage.

The pilot had been captured last December by ISIL militants when his plane went down in northern Syria during a mission against the terrorist group.

Jordanian King Abdullah II pledged to step up the fight against the ISIL and other militant groups.

Since late September last year, the US and its allies have been conducting airstrikes against the terrorist group inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate. The airstrikes are an extension of the US-led aerial campaign against ISIL positions in Iraq.

Washington says it is striking ISIL positions in both Iraq and Syria, but there is skepticism on both sides of the border about the real objective of the airstrikes.

The US and its regional allies had been the leading supporters of the ISIL and other affiliated militant groups operating against the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

IA/KA/SS

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