The Jordanian government attacked the Islamic State earlier Thursday in response to IS militants who released a video of Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh being burned alive, reported The Huffington Post.
“We are waging this war to protect our faith, our values and human principles, and our war for their sake will be relentless and will hit them in their own ground,” said Jordanian King Abdullah.
Jordan has already launched aggressive airstrikes against ISIS targets, though the Jordanian state didn’t confirm the exact location of the strikes. However, they did confirm approximately 55 confirmed kills. Jordan, as part of a US-led coalition against ISIS, is known to have made strikes against ISIS targets in Syria in the past.
Although the country is committed to launching airstrikes against ISIS, the Guardian reported that it still “seemed unlikely, . . . that the kingdom would risk ground operations.” However, Abdullah and military officials remain open to any and all options.
“We are talking about a collaborative effort between coalition members to intensify efforts to stop extremism and terrorism to undermine, degrade and eventually finish Daesh [Arabic for ISIS],” said chief government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani.
The brutality of ISIS outraged the Jordanians so much that King Abdullah announced that his country’s response “will be harsh because this terrorist organization is not only fighting us, but also fighting Islam and its pure values. [Jordan will hit] hard in the very center of their strongholds.”
ISIS struck at Jordan. Whether it was to provoke this very response is unclear. However, Jordan remained mostly out of the focus of this current state of events. Now that the country has been brought completely in, the group ISIS should expect aggressive and unrelenting action from Jordan.
