Jordanian jet was shot down by ISIS using an American supplied missile

December 31st, 2014

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

Jordanian pilot says jet hit by missile as concerns over ISIS’ armament grow

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) extremist group published Monday what it said was an interview with a Jordanian pilot it captured after his war jet went down in Syria last week.

In the comments attributed to the pilot, he said his plane was hit by a heat-seeking missile, endorsing the militants group’s version of events, which has been refuted by both Jordan and the United States.

Last week, officials from the US military and Jordan dismissed ISIS’ claim that it hit the jet with an anti-aircraft missile, saying “evidence clearly suggests that ISIL [ISIS] did not down the aircraft,” using a different acronym for the group.

The purported interview published online by ISIS English-language magazine Dabiq is accompanied by photographs of 26-year-old First Lieutenant Maaz al-Kassasbeh.

Large swathes of land in Iraq have become ISIS strongholds as the extremist group, which declared a “caliphate” in the territory it seized in Iraq and Syria, drove Iraq’s army – the recipient of $25 billion in US training and funding since the 2003 invasion – to collapse.

In this interview, the pilot discussed how the airstrikes in Syria are coordinated between the countries of the US-led coalition.

He said his role was to destroy anti-aircraft weapons on the ground and to provide cover for the strike aircraft.

ISIS captured Kassasbeh on December 24 after his F-16 jet crashed while on a mission against the extremist group over northern Syria.

The crash, which marked a major propaganda victory for the group, was the first warplane from the so-called US-led anti-ISIS coalition lost in combat since airstrikes began in Syria in September.

Immediately after the crash, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said ISIS used a missile they took from the military equipment Western countries and Arab allies provided the Syrian “rebels” with in their battle against the Syrian army.

ISIS “has a large number of anti-aircraft weapons taken from the rebels,” the Observatory director added.

Opposed to US involvement in the conflict with ISIS, Damascus and it’s allies have pointed out that Washington in partnership with its Gulf allies, including Saudi Arabia, played a role in the formation and expansion of extremist groups like ISIS by arming, financing and politically empowering armed opposition groups in Syria.

Commenting on the Jordanian plane crash, Eliot Higgins, who posts detailed analysis of weapons in Syria and other conflicts on his blog, said it has become well-known that ISIS has several kinds of anti-aircraft weapons.

According to a report published in September, ISIS extremists appear to be using US military arms and weapons supplied to the so-called moderate rebels in Syria by Saudi Arabia.

The study, which was conducted by the London-based small-arms research organization Conflict Armament Research, revealed that anti-tank rockets used by ISIS in Syria were “identical to M79 rockets transferred by Saudi Arabia to forces operating under the Free Syrian Army umbrella in 2013.”

Moreover, the report added that the group captured a number of American-made Humvee armored vehicles and has reportedly used them in suicide bombings against Iraqi forces on at least two occasions.

Due to ISIS’ military capabilities, experts are skeptical about the result of the US-led airstrikes against the group.

The US-led coalition of around 60 mainly Western and Arab states has been bombing Iraq and Syria since August and September respectively.

However, the air campaign, which Washington says aims to degrade ISIS’ military capability, remains the subject of debate, with critics pointing to ISIS’ advances and battlefield successes in last months.

Despite the US-led airstrikes, ISIS seems to have had taken countermeasures in advance to prepare for air raids. Security sources and witnesses say that ISIS fighters, after the coalition declared war on the group, began to alter the ways they control territory and their public appearances.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose army has been fighting the extremist groups for over three years, told a French magazine earlier in December that the US airstrikes have been ineffective.

“You can’t end terrorism with aerial strikes,” Assad said.

Filed under: ISIL, Jordan, Syria, US Congress, US Foreign Policy, USA, War on Syria, Wars for Israel