AMMAN // Jordan says it has destroyed 56 targets in three days of strikes on ISIL after the group brutally murdered one of its pilots, and is determined to destroy the extremists.
Air Force chief Major General Mansour Al Jobour did not specify where the strikes took place, but said on Sunday that air raids launched since Thursday had destroyed 20 per cent of ISIL’s capabilities.
“On the first day of the campaign to avenge our airman Maaz Al Kassasbeh, 19 targets were destroyed, including training camps and equipment,” he said.
Gen Al Jobour’s comments came as a squadron of warplanes from the UAE arrived in Jordan on Sunday to help the kingdom in its fight against ISIL.
The F-16 fighter jets were deployed at a Jordanian airbase along with UAE pilots and technicians, said the kingdom’s official Petra news agency.
The order for the squadron’s deployment to Jordan came on Saturday from Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.
Jordan has vowed to crush ISIL after the militants burned alive Al Kassasbeh, who was captured in December when his F-16 warplane crashed in Syria.
Eighteen more targets including ammunition and fuel depots and logistics centres were hit on Friday.
On Saturday, 19 ISIL targets were destroyed, including barracks and residential centres.
“So far, the campaign has destroyed 20 per cent of the fighting capabilities of Daesh,” Gen Al Jobour said, using another name for ISIL, which controls swathes of both Syria and Iraq.
Jordanian foreign minister Nasser Judeh told Fox News this week that the country’s air force had targeted ISIL in both Syria and Iraq where the extremists have proclaimed an Islamic “caliphate” in areas it controls.
“We are determined to wipe out this terrorist gang,” Gen Al Jobour said on Sunday, adding that the air force will step up strikes against ISIL over the next few days.
In remarks published on Saturday, Jordanian interior minister Hussein Majali said that Al Kassasbeh’s gruesome murder by ISIL was a “turning point” in the kingdom’s fight against extremism.
Jordanian air strikes are “the beginning of an ongoing process to eliminate” ISIL, Mr Majali was quoted as saying by government newspaper Al Rai.
“The day of the hero, martyr pilot’s assassination is a turning point in Jordan’s history in order to face this horrific crime that was committed by the cowardly terrorist organisation,” he said.
Jordan and the UAE are part of the US-led coalition of Arab and Western countries that has been carrying out air strikes against ISIL since September.
Gen Al Jobour said Jordanian warplanes have flown 946 sorties out of a total of 1,500 by the coalition since the campaign began.
“More than 7,000 Daesh criminals have been killed since Jordan began participating in the air campaign,” he added.
The country’s air strikes have contributed to crippling the extremist group’s oil revenues, Gen Al Jobour said.
ISIL has targeted oil and gas facilities in Iraq and Syria as it seeks to finance its campaign and seize more territory for its “caliphate”.
* Agence France-Presse
