US claims IS did not shoot down Jordanian jet

A statement released by US Central Command on Wednesday confirmed that the Jordanian F-16 had gone down near the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, but described it as a "crash," saying it was not shot down by "Islamic State" militants, as they stated earlier in the day.

"Evidence clearly indicates that ISIL did not down the aircraft as the terrorist organization is claiming," the statement said.

However, it also confirmed that the Jordanian pilot had been taken captive by IS fighters.

The statement further quoted the commander of Central Command, General Lloyd J. Austin III, who said the US military "will support efforts to ensure his safe recovery, and will not tolerate ISIL's (IS) attempts to misrepresent or exploit this unfortunate aircraft crash for their own purposes."

He also praised the Jordanian contribution to the US-led coalition, which has been conducting air strikes against IS fighters in Syria since September.

"The Jordanians are highly-respected and valued partners, and their pilots and crews have performed exceptionally well over the course of this campaign," Austin III said.

Despite claiming that the plane was not shot out of the sky, the statement offered no explanation as to what had caused it to come down.

Previous confirmation

The US statements also run contrary to statements that came out of Amman earlier in the day.

The Jordanian information minister, Mohammad Momani, was cited by the Associated Press as saying that the plane was shot down by "ground fire." Hours later, he told the same news agency that the case wasn't as clear cut as previously thought.

"It is our expectation that the plane went down because of fire from the ground, but it is difficult to confirm that, with the little information we have," he said.

Speaking on satellite television channel Al Hadath, a government spokesman also confirmed that the fighter jet had been "shot at from the ground by rocket missiles and brought down."

Not surprisingly, the IS has sought to use the pilot's capture for propaganda purposes, publishing pictures appearing to show the pilot in captivity, as well as a picture showing his military identity card.

The images were later verified to the Reuters news agency by members of the family of the pilot, identified as First Lieutenant Muath al-Kasaesbeh, age 27. Separately, the Jordanian army confirmed his name.

Operations center set up

Jordanian officials said King Abdullah had met with top military commanders after learning of the pilot's capture and the armed forces had set up a round-the-clock operations center.

The US-led coalition said it had carried out 10 strikes on Wednesday in Syria, including one near Raqqa, and seven in Iraq, where it began striking IS fighters back in August.

pfd/gsw (Reuters, AP, AFP)