Jordan Airstrikes Key IS Locations, Claims To Have Destroyed 20% of IS Capabilities

Jordan claims to have carried out around 56 airstrikes in the previous three days on IS' key stratgic locations and hideouts.

Jordanian Air Force chief General Mansour al-Jbour has said that the nation has achieved what it aspired for. Jordan has intensified the air strikes after the IS released a video showing a Jordanian pilot being burnt alive.

Jordan has carried out around 20% of all the military offensives by the US-led coalition against the IS in Syria thus far.  General Jbour said, "We are determined to wipe them from the face of the Earth."

The IS announced its arrival by snatching away large areas of lands from Syria and Iraq, prompting an intense airstrike be the allied forces. 

The main location of the Jordanian airstrikes is reported to be Raqqua, IS' stronghold in syria.  Gen Jbour has claimed the Jordanian strikes has destroyed around 20% of the strength of IS.

On the other hand, the IS is claiming that one of the Jordanian airstrikes has killed a US aid worker Kayla Mueller; the claim needs to be corroborated though. 

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Jordan Hangs Two al-Qaeda Prisoners, Within hours of The Killing Of The Jordanian Pilot

Jordan has executed two al-Qaeda prisoners before dawn today; just a few hours after the Islamic State militants released a video that purposefully showed the captured Jordanian pilot being burnt alive in a cage. A government spokesman has confirmed the killing of the pilot.

After the news of pilot's death was made public, Jordan vowed a quick and lethal response. 

Government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani confirmed the execution of the two prisoners. They are identified as Sajida al-Rishawi and Ziad al-Karbouly. Al-Rishawi was sentenced to death for corroborated involvement in the 2005 triple-hotel bombing in Amman; al-Karbouly was given the capital punishment in 2008 for his involvement in terror attacks on Jordanians in Iraq.

Earlier, Jordan offered to free al-Rishawi -a failed suicide bomber- for the pilot's safe return, but declined any swap after saying that there is no concrete evidence of the pilot's being alive.   

The brutal murder of the Jordanian pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, 26, enraged the Jordanian people and drew condemnation from all quarters including the US President Barack Obama.

Al-Kaseasbeh was captured by the militants in December when his F-16 fighter jet crashed near Raqqa, Syria, the capital of the Islamic State's self-proclaimed caliphate.

Analysts are seeing the capture and subsequent killing as a move of IS to put pressure on Jordan to do away with its alliance with the US. This coalition is a key to the airstrikes targeted at the strategic locations of IS in Syria and Iraq.

This brutal killing of the pilot might backfire on the IS as there is a possibility of Sunni Muslims, enraged at the gory killing of another Sunni Muslim, getting organized to fight the terrorists.

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