Jordan Interior Minister: We Will 'Wipe Out' ISIS

Airstrikes continue for 3rd consecutive day
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Feb 7, 2015 9:27 AM CST
Jordan Interior Minister: We Will 'Wipe Out' ISIS
Demonstrators chant anti-ISIS slogans during a rally in Amman, Jordan, Friday, Feb. 6, 2015.   (Nasser Nasser)

Jordan is going after ISIS militants wherever they are and plans to "wipe them out completely," Jordan's interior minister said, as Jordanian fighter jets struck the group's positions for the third consecutive day today. It was the latest in a series of warnings of harsh retaliation after the militants released a video of them burning a Jordanian pilot to death in a cage. The gruesome images sparked widespread anger in Jordan and the region.

The kingdom joined a US-led military coalition in September, but said after the killing of the pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, that it would intensify its air attacks. The campaign began Thursday. Interior Minister Hussein al-Majali said al-Kaseasbeh's killing was a turning point for Jordan. He told the state-run al-Rai newspaper in comments published today that Jordan will go after the militants "wherever they are," and that the most recent airstrikes are "the beginning of a continued process to eliminate them and wipe them out completely." ISIS says one of the Jordanian airstrikes killed its last remaining US hostage, but her family says they still have hope. (More ISIS stories.)

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