Jordan launches 56 revenge airstrikes against ISIS

Jordan has announced it has carried out 56 air strikes on Isis in recent days, as a top US envoy said Iraqi troops would begin a major ground offensive against the fake jihadists in the weeks ahead.

Jordanian air force chief Major General Mansour al-Jobour said on Sunday the kingdom had launched the 56 air raids since Thursday as part of an international assault against Isis that Washington says is beginning to bite.

Jordan has vowed an “earth-shattering” response after the extremists captured one of its air force pilots, Maaz al-Kassasbeh, burned him alive and released a gruesome video of the execution.

“On the first day of the campaign to avenge our airman Maaz al-Kassasbeh, 19 targets were destroyed, including training camps and equipment,” Jobour told reporters.

John Allen, the US co-ordinator for the anti-Isis coalition of western and Arab countries, said on Sunday that Iraqi troops would begin a major ground offensive against the fake jihadists “in the weeks ahead”.

“When the Iraqi forces begin the ground campaign to take back Iraq, the coalition will provide major firepower associated with that,” he told Jordan’s official Petra news agency, stressing that the Iraqis would lead the offensive.

Isis has seized swaths of Iraq and Syria, ruling the territory with a brutal form of Islam.

Jordan has vowed to crush the group after it released a highly choreographed video showing the murder of its pilot, who was captured in December when his F-16 warplane went down in Syria.

The air force chief said air strikes since last Thursday had destroyed dozens of targets, including barracks, training camps, ammunition and fuel depots, and residential centres.

“So far, the campaign has destroyed 20% of the fighting capabilities of Daesh,” Jobour said, using another name for Isis.

Jobour said more than 7,000 Isis militants had been killed since Jordan began participating in coalition air strikes.