Isis claims to publish interview with captured Jordanian pilot

Reuters in Amman
The Guardian, Tuesday 30 December 2014 16.43 GMT

Islamic State (Isis) has released what it says is an interview with a Jordanian pilot captured last week after his plane crashed during US-led coalition bombing in eastern Syria.

It was not possible to independently verify the interview published in the group’s English-language online magazine Dabiq, in which First Lieutenant Muath al-Kasaesbeh was quoted as saying his F-16 fighter was struck by a heat-seeking missile.

“I heard and felt its hit. The other Jordanian pilot in the mission contacted me from a participating jet and told me that I was struck and that fire was coming out of the rear nozzle of my engine,” Kasaesbeh said, according to Dabiq.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Jordan declined to comment on the apparent interview, the first since Isis published photographs purporting to show his capture. Kasaesbeh, who comes from a prominent Jordanian family, is the first pilot from the coalition known to have been captured by the hardline group.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]