Jordanian pilot’s family pleads with Islamic State for mercy
Moaz al-Kasasbeh's brother says captured anti-IS coalition soldier is a 'pious man' who always flew with a Quran
Hours after Amman confirmed that Islamic State fighters had captured a Jordanian pilot who was flying a mission as part of the US-led coalition against the Islamic State, the man’s family called on the terror group to release him.
“I plead with Daesh to be merciful toward him,” the brother of coalition pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh told a Jordanian radio station on Wednesday. “My brother is a pious man who prays and fasts and he always flies with his Quran with him,” Jawwad al-Kasasbeh said, referring to the group by its Arabic acronym.
Jawwad al-Kasasbeh added that Moaz was “just following the orders he received in the military and could not refuse them.” He called on the public to pray for the pilot’s safe return and said that the al-Kasasbeh family had learned of his capture by IS from the media.
A senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, a Sunni political movement that objected to Jordan’s joining the international coalition against IS, said he hoped the pilot would be released as soon as possible.
A US commander overseeing coalition military operations in Iraq and Syria, was quoted by CNN as saying that “The Jordanians are highly respected and valued partners and their pilots and crews have performed exceptionally well over the course of this campaign. We strongly condemn the actions of ISIL which has taken captive the downed pilot.
“We will support efforts to ensure his safe recovery, and will not tolerate ISIL’s attempts to misrepresent or exploit this unfortunate aircraft crash for their own purposes,” he added.
The US military and the White House refer to the Islamic State by another of its acronyms, ISIL.
Al-Kasasbeh is the first coalition pilot to be captured by the terror group.
The US dismissed the claim by IS that his aircraft was shot down. “Evidence clearly indicates” that the terrorist group “did not down the aircraft,” US Central Command said in a statement. Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani also said his country “initially thought the plane might have been shot at.”