US military rejects Jordan jet was shot down by ISIL

The United States rejects a claim by the ISIL Takfiri terrorists that they shot down a Jordanian F-16 fighter jet flying with US-led coalition forces in eastern Syria.

“Evidence clearly indicates that ISIL did not down the aircraft as the terrorist organization is claiming,” said US Central Command (CentCom) in a statement on Wednesday.

The body, which oversees the US-led coalition airstrikes against the ISIL militants in Iraq and Syria, did not give a cause for the crash.

The statement, however, confirmed the Jordanian pilot had been taken hostage by the ISIL Takfiri militants.

“We strongly condemn the actions of ISIL, which has taken captive the downed pilot,” said CentCom commander General Lloyd Austin.

He added that Washington would support efforts to ensure the captured pilot’s safe return and would not tolerate the militants’ attempts to misrepresent or exploit the aircraft crash for their own purposes.

Earlier on Wednesday, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed that the ISIL Takfiri militants had shot down the Jordanian F-16 flying with the US-led coalition in Syria’s Raqqa province.

The Jordanian military also confirmed that its warplane had crashed in Syria and that its pilot was captured by the ISIL militants.

Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain are among a number of countries that have joined the so-called US-led alliance carrying out airstrikes against ISIL in Syria and Iraq. This comes as most of these countries have been supporting the Takfiri militants.

The ISIL militants, who have seized swathes of land in Iraq and neighboring Syria, have been carrying out horrific acts of violence, including public decapitations and crucifixions, against all communities such as Shias, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians, in both Arab states.