Jordan has threatened ISIL with more raids, describing the latest airstrike on the militants by the country's armed forces as a prelude to a new spate of attacks against the terrorist group.
On Thursday, Jordan’s fighter jets carried out a series of new retaliatory air strikes against the hideouts of ISIL currently operating in Syria and Iraq after the ruthless killing of a Jordanian pilot at the hands of ISIL.
"This is just the beginning and you shall know who the Jordanians are," the armed forces said in a statement on state TV.
The statement further noted that the Jordanian jets targeted the training centers, arms and ammunition depots of the group.
"All targets were completely destroyed and all the planes returned to their bases safely," the statement added.
Jordan is part of a US-led military coalition that has purportedly bombed militant targets in both Syria and Iraq since last year.
The latest strikes came two days after ISIL released a video on the Internet showing the terrorists setting alight the Jordanian pilot, Muath al-Kasasbeh, who had been taken hostage in December.
The video showed Kassasbeh dressed in an orange jumpsuit and surrounded by flames of fire inside a metal cage.
The pilot was captured by ISIL militants when his plane went down in northern Syria during a mission against the terrorist group.
Jordan has vowed “punishment and revenge” for the killing of the 26-year-old pilot. Just hours after the video emerged, Amman executed two ISIL-linked militants.
Jordan's response to the torching of the pilot "will be strong and will be decisive," Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani said, adding, "We will not let this crime of killing our pilots with the horrific way it was done pass without punishment."
"These people will be punished," he added.
Jordanian King Abdullah II has pledged to step up the fight against the ISIL and other militant groups.
Since late September last year, the US and its allies have been conducting airstrikes against the terrorist group inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate. The airstrikes are an extension of the US-led aerial campaign against ISIL positions in Iraq.
Washington says it is striking ISIL positions in both Iraq and Syria, but there is skepticism on both sides of the border about the real objective of the airstrikes.
The US and its regional allies had been the leading supporters of the ISIL and other affiliated militant groups operating against the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
