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Islamic State militants wave flags as they take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province. — Reuters/File
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BEIRUT: The Islamic State group on Wednesday shot down a warplane from the US-led coalition over northern Syria, a monitoring group said, with the jihadists claiming to have captured a Jordanian pilot.
“We have confirmed reports that IS members took a (non-Syrian) Arab pilot prisoner after shooting his plane down with an anti-aircraft missile near Raqa city,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The IS branch in Raqa published photographs on jihadist websites purporting to show its fighters holding the captured pilot, with a caption identifying him as Jordanian and giving his name.
Several photographs were released, including one showing the pilot, wearing only a white shirt, being carried from a body of water by four men.
Another showed him on land, surrounded by about a dozen armed men.
The jihadists claimed to have shot down the warplane with a heat-seeking missile.
The Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a wide network of sources inside Syria, had no further immediate information.
There was no immediate reaction from authorities in Jordan.
Jordan is among a number of countries that have joined the US-led alliance carrying out air strikes against IS after the jihadists seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Bahrain are taking part in the air strikes in Syria alongside the United States.
Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France and The Netherlands have joined the raids in Iraq.
The Sunni extremist IS has committed widespread atrocities in areas under its control, including mass executions of captured soldiers and public beheadings of hostages including Western journalists and aid workers.
Coalition warplanes have carried out regular strikes around Raqa, which IS has used as the headquarters for its self-proclaimed “caliphate”.
Suicide bomber kills 21 in attack on anti-IS fighters in Iraq:
A suicide bomber blew up himself on Wednesday among a group of pro-government, anti-Islamic State group Sunni militias near Baghdad, killing at least 22 people, a latest bold attack by militants seeking to undermine government efforts to fight extremists.
The attacker managed to mingle with the militiamen who gathered at a military base in the town of Madain to receive their monthly payment, two police officers said.
At least 15 of the dead were Sunni militiamen and the rest were soldiers, while 55 others were wounded, they said. The town is located about 20 kilometers (14 miles) south of Baghdad.
The group, known as Sahwa or the Awakening Councils, is made up of Sunni militiamen who joined US troops in the fight against Al Qaeda during the height of Iraq's insurgency in 2007 and 2008. They are viewed as traitors by the Sunni militants.
Three medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to release information to the media.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, but it bore the hallmark of the Islamic State group, which captured large swaths of western and northern Iraq in a summer blitz.
The militant group's onslaught has become Iraq's worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of US troops.
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