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Jordan's Military Conducts Airstrikes Against Islamic State Targets

Jordanian Soldiers mourn Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh in the city of Karak, Jordan, on Wednesday.
Mohammad Abu Ghosh Xinhua/Landov
Jordanian Soldiers mourn Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh in the city of Karak, Jordan, on Wednesday.

Jordan's military conducted airstrikes against the self-described Islamic State militant group in both Syria and Iraq Thursday, a day after vowing revenge for the killing by the organization of a Jordanian pilot. The country, which is part of the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State, delivered the news in a statement from its military.

NPR's Peter Kenyon, who is in the Jordanian capital, Amman, tells our Newscast unit: "Public concerns about Jordan's participation in the anti-ISIS coalition subsided amid national outrage at a video showing the burning of the captured Jordanian pilot. Rumors even circulated that the king himself, a former pilot, would fly a mission, though military experts say that's highly unlikely."

ISIS — short for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria — is another name for the Islamic State. It is also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL.

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The Jordanian airstrikes came as King Abdullah heads to southern Jordan to pay condolences to the family of the slain pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh. Abdullah has vowed to wage a "harsh" war against the militants after they released a video this week that showed Kaseasbeh being burned alive.

Jordan executed al-Qaida-linked militants in the wake of the video's release.

Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.