Coalition planes bomb IS ‘capital’ in Syria

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Coalition warplanes pounded a stronghold of the Islamic State group in Syria Saturday amid uncertainty over the fate of a US hostage the jihadists claim was killed in an earlier raid.

The United Arab Emirates, meanwhile, said it would station a squadron of F-16 warplanes in Jordan to support it in strikes against the IS who burned alive a captured Jordanian airman.

The parents of American Kayla Jean Mueller said they were “hopeful” she was still alive, after IS said she had been buried under rubble following a strike by a Jordanian warplane on their self-proclaimed capital Raqqa.

Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

The United States said there was no proof that the 26-year-old aid worker from Arizona had been killed.

Mueller’s parents appealed to her captors to contact them and for her safe return, in a statement carried by NBC News.

“This news leaves us concerned, yet, we are still hopeful that Kayla is alive. We have sent you a private message and ask that you respond to us privately,” said Carl and Marsha Mueller.

In this May 30, 2013, photo, Kayla Mueller is shown after speaking to a group in Prescott, Ariz. A statement that appeared on a militant website commonly used by the Islamic State group claimed that Mueller was killed in a Jordanian airstrike on Friday, Feb. 6, 2015, on the outskirts of the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, the militant group’s main stronghold. The IS statement could not be independently verified. (Photo credit: AP/The Daily Courier, Matt Hinshaw)

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the US-led coalition fighting IS bombarded the Raqqa area on Saturday for a second consecutive day.

More than 30 IS fighters had been killed in raids Friday around Raqqa, said the Britain-based monitor.

A coalition statement said it had carried out a total of 11 air strikes against IS in Syria and 15 in Iraq during a 24-hour period up to Saturday morning, including in Raqqa.

Jordanian state media said its warplanes had launched new anti-IS raids Saturday, for the third consecutive day, without saying what the targets were.

Coalition partner UAE said an unspecified number of F-16s would be deployed in Jordan to support the military in the fight against “the brutal terrorist organisation” IS.

An activist in Raqqa who did not want to be named said unconfirmed reports indicate Mueller had been moved recently from a women’s prison in the city to an IS camp farther east.

The camp “has recently been the target of intense coalition raids,” he said. “At the moment, we cannot confirm whether she was killed in the raids.”

‘Sick trick’

Jordan — still reeling from the brutal murder of pilot Mu’ath al-Kaseasbeh — rejected the jihadists’ claim that its warplanes killed Mueller, calling it an “old and sick trick” to deter coalition strikes.

IS said none of its fighters was wounded in the raid, and it did not publish any pictures of her body.

The Jordanian military has said its fighter jets had launched dozens of strikes since Thursday, and that it would provide details on Sunday about the targets it says it has destroyed.

Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh told Fox News this week the air force had targeted IS in both Syria and Iraq.

Interior Minister Hussein Majali said in remarks published Saturday that the burning alive of Kaseasbeh by IS was a “turning point” in the kingdom’s fight against extremism.

This still image made from a video released by Islamic State group militants and posted on the website of the SITE Intelligence Group on February 3, 2015, purportedly shows Jordanian pilot Lt. Mu’ath al-Kaseasbeh standing in a cage just before being burned to death by his captors. (photo credit: AP/SITE Intelligence Group)

After Kaseasbeh’s warplane crashed in Syria in December and following his capture by IS, the UAE withdrew from the US-led coalition’s strike missions over fears for the safety of its pilots.

The federation’s official WAM news agency said Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahayan, deputy head of the UAE armed forces, had ordered the deployment of F-16s in Jordan.

“The initiative… reaffirms the UAE’s unwavering and constant solidarity with Jordan and its leading role and immense sacrifices for the security and stability of the region as embodied by martyr and hero Mu’ath al-Kaseasbeh” the agency reported.

US authorities have never given figures on the number of Americans kidnapped in Syria, sticking to a policy of complete silence.

Mueller travelled to the Syrian-Turkish border in 2012 to help refugees fleeing the civil war and was captured in Aleppo after leaving a Doctors Without Borders hospital.

In northern Iraq, where Kurdish forces have pushed back IS, the remains of 23 men from the Yazidi religious minority were found in a mass grave, an official said on Saturday.

IS, a Sunni extremist group, has seized swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq and imposed an extreme interpretation of Islam on the areas under its control.