Jordan attacks IS targets inside Iraq

Staff/wire report

AMMAN, Jordan

Dozens of Jordanian fighter jets bombed Islamic State training centers and weapons storage sites Thursday, intensifying attacks after the militants burned to death a captured Jordanian pilot.

As part of the new campaign, Jordan also is attacking targets in Iraq, said Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh. Up to now, Jordan had struck IS targets in Syria, but not Iraq, as part of a U.S.-led military coalition.

“We said we are going to take this all the way; we are going to go after them wherever they are, and we’re doing that,” Judeh told Fox News.

Asked if Jordan was now carrying out attacks in both countries, he said: “That’s right. Today more Syria than Iraq, but like I said, it’s an ongoing effort.”

“They’re in Iraq and they are in Syria and, therefore, you have to target them wherever they are,” he added.

The militant group controls about one-third of each Syria and Iraq, both neighbors of Jordan. In September, Jordan joined the U.S.-led military alliance that has been carrying out airstrikes against the militants.

The Jordanian military said dozens of fighter jets were involved in Thursday’s strikes on training centers and weapons storage sites.

State TV showed footage of the attacks, including fighter jets taking off from an air base and bombs setting off large balls of fire and smoke after impact. It showed Jordanian troops writing messages in chalk on the missiles. “For you, the enemies of Islam,” read one message.

The military’s statement, read on state TV, was titled “This is the beginning and you will get to know the Jordanians” — an apparent warning to IS. It said the strikes will continue “until we eliminate them.”

Mahoning County Commissioner Anthony Traficanti, a former aide to the late Rep. James A. Traficant Jr., urged that the United States make a full commitment to the war on the Islamic State.

“If we lay back and continue to be a paper tiger as a nation, and we don’t hit these people head on, they’re going to get worse. They are no longer a junior varsity league as President [Barack] Obama said a year ago. These are major players who are causing barbarity. They are sacrificing humans. They are killing and they are pillaging, and they’re getting away with it,” he said.

“I want to start hearing from our local congresspeople and our senators and our president that they’re going to take the lead and go after these people,” he said at Thursday’s county commissioners’ meeting.