AMMAN: Jordan vowed Thursday to make every effort to save a pilot captured by the ISIS group in Syria as Washington denied claims the jihadists shot his warplane out of the sky.
Maaz Al Kassasbeh, a 26-year-old first lieutenant in the Jordanian air force, was captured by ISIS on Wednesday after his F-16 jet crashed while on a mission against the militants over northern Syria.
It was the first warplane lost and the first capture of a serviceman since the coalition launched strikes against ISIS in Syria in September.
It was also a major propaganda victory for the Sunni extremist group, which released several photographs parading the captured pilot.
The Jordanian government… is making all efforts with several crisis cells to free (the pilot), government daily Al Rai said in an editorial Thursday.
We are confident that our brave one will be released… He has not been forgotten, it said.
Jordan has joined the US-led coalition carrying out air strikes against ISIS after it seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq.
Kassasbehs plane went down near the Syrian city of Raqa, which ISIS has used as its de facto capital and where coalition warplanes have carried out regular strikes.
The militants and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed the plane was brought down by an anti-aircraft missile, raising concerns for other coalition planes flying in the area.
But the US military dismissed the claim, saying evidence clearly suggests that ISIL did not down the aircraft, using another name for ISIS.
ISIS posted photographs online showing its fighters holding the pilot.
One showed a man being carried from a body of water by four gunmen. Another showed the same man on land, surrounded by almost a dozen militants.
The pilots father, Youssef, was quoted by Jordanian media as saying the family had been informed by the air force of his capture.
He called on ISIS to show mercy on his son and release him.
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