{"id":485,"date":"2015-02-09T07:47:17","date_gmt":"2015-02-09T07:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raqqa-sl.com\/en\/?p=485"},"modified":"2015-03-15T23:29:31","modified_gmt":"2015-03-15T23:29:31","slug":"jordan-says-airstrikes-targeting-islamic-state-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raqqa-sl.com\/en\/?p=485","title":{"rendered":"Jordan says its airstrikes are targeting Islamic State leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"In<\/a>
In this image made from Feb. 4 video provided by Jordanian military via Roya TV, an air force pilot raises his arm as he taxis his jet at Mowafak Al-Salti airbase in Azraq, Jordan. (AP)<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

AMMAN, Jordan \u2014<\/span> Jordan\u2019s air force has carried out 56 airstrikes against Islamic State weapons depots and training camps in Syria and Iraq in the days since the extremist group revealed it had burned a Jordanian pilot to death, Jordanian military officials said Sunday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A top Jordanian air force commander vowed that his country will continue its offensive until the Islamist militants are \u201cwiped off the face of the Earth.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The small kingdom has been a quiet member of the U.S.-led air campaign against the Islamic State since September, but after a video was released last week of the captured pilot being burned alive in a cage, the Jordanian public has called for blood and King Abdullah II and his military have promised vengeance.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the Jordanian bombing campaign entered its fourth day Sunday, details of the airstrikes were presented at a rare news briefing at a special operations training center on the outskirts of the capital, Amman.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A principal focus of the three days of strikes has been Islamic State personnel, Jordanian military officials said, asserting that the kingdom\u2019s fighter jets had destroyed 19 locations harboring Islamic State commanders and fighters.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was unclear whether the Jordanian statement of 56 airstrikes referred to missions flown or specific targets hit. The U.S. Central Command, which provides \u201cair tasking orders\u201d for the coalition, reported a total of 24 \u201cstrikes\u201d \u2014 meaning targets hit \u2014 in Syria from Wednesday through Friday last week, although figures from Saturday had not yet been released.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A \u201cstrike\u201d can, however, include a number of buildings in the same place.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Jordanians want to kill the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, said Maj. Gen. Mansour Jabour of the Royal Jordanian Air Force.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are hitting them where they eat and sleep,\u201d he said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Numerous airstrikes took place in and around the Islamic State\u2019s de facto headquarters in the Syrian city of Raqqa over the weekend, according to accounts posted on Twitter by \u201cRaqqa Is Silently Being Slaughtered,\u201d a clandestine group that monitors the situation inside the city.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The general said that since August, U.S.-led coalition bombing has killed \u201caround 7,000 fighters\u201d from the Islamic State.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That assertion could not be immediately verified. In September, the CIA reported that the Islamic State\u2019s ranks ranged between 20,000 and 31,500 across Iraq and Syria. That was before the formation of the wider coalition that brought additional fighters under the group\u2019s umbrella.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The secondary goal of the airstrikes is \u201cto disrupt and destroy\u201d the Islamic State\u2019s economic and financial sources, according to Jordanian officials, who claim to have successfully \u201cdisrupted\u201d the group\u2019s ability to sell black-market oil by destroying 18 key \u201clogistic centers.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Jordanian military officials rejected an assertion by the Islamic State that the airstrikes had killed an American hostage, as well as other civilians.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Friday, the group said that Kayla Mueller, a 26-year-old Arizona woman it had taken hostage in Syria, was killed when a Jordanian fighter plane bombed a building where she was being held.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The assertion could not be immediately verified, nor was it clear that Jordanian planes had bombed the location. The Islamic State has not produced her body or other evidence that she was killed in the strike.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not target any civilian homes, we did not cut a single tree, and we did not destroy any home in any residential area or even in the surrounding areas,\u201d Jabour said Sunday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Jabour, Jordanian fighter jets have taken part in 946 of 5,500 bombing runs by the U.S.-led coalition since September, accounting for 17\u00a0percent of the coalition\u2019s air power.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The general pledged that Jordan would continue its aerial campaign against the Islamic State, warning, \u201cThis is not the end but the beginning.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue to fight this war until we have achieved its goal, wiping ISIS from the face of the Earth,\u201d Jabour said, using a common acronym for the Islamic State.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alongside Jordan and the United States, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been participating in airstrikes, with logistical support from Qatar. According to the State Department, U.S. warplanes have led about 90\u00a0percent of the air attacks.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The UAE is expected to resume flights that it suspended after the Jordanian pilot was killed, senior State Department officials said Saturday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jordan has intensified its bombing campaign against the Islamic State since the release of the video showing the group burning Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh alive, with Jordan carrying out airstrikes in Iraq for the first time on Friday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a tribute to the fallen pilot, Jordanian F-16 jets fresh from bombing runs in Syria and Iraq flew over Kaseasbeh\u2019s funeral tent in the southern city of Karak on Thursday and Friday in a \u201cvictory lap.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jordan\u2019s King Abdullah has vowed a \u201crelentless war\u201d against the Islamic State, with government officials describing the airstrikes as the beginning of an \u201cearth-shattering response\u201d to the pilot\u2019s killing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the wake of the killing, the Islamic State issued a list of the names of Jordanian pilots taking part in the coalition and satellite images of their homes, offering a bounty of 100 gold dinars (about $20,000) each for their killings.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jordan\u2019s state-run Petra news agency reported that the kingdom received several F-16s from the UAE on Sunday. According to Petra, the fighter jets were accompanied by crews of UAE \u201cpilots and technicians\u201d in addition to a C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The news agency quoted Col. Saeed Hassan, commander of the UAE air forces in Jordan, as saying that his forces will be \u201cready to carry out any tasks in coordination with the Jordan Armed Forces.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, President Obama\u2019s special presidential envoy, retired Marine Gen. John Allen, arrived in Amman late Sunday to meet with Abdullah and senior military officials.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Also Sunday, the Jordanian monarch met with Britain\u2019s Prince Charles, who pledged his country\u2019s support for Jordan\u2019s efforts to tackle terrorism, according to a Royal Court statement carried by Petra.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Source :\u00a0washingtonpost.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AMMAN, Jordan — Jordan’s air force has carried out 56 airstrikes against Islamic State weapons depots and training camps in Syria and Iraq in the days since the extremist group<\/p>\n

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