Captured Jordanian pilot’s family to ISIS: Show mercy

Amman, Jordan, Dec. 25  (NsNewsWire) — For the first time since a United States-led international coalition began airstrikes against the extremist group ISIS, a coalition pilot has been captured.
The family of Jordanian Moaz al-Kasasbeh is pleading that the militants release him, reports CNN .
Speaking with CNN Arabic, the pilot’s brother Jawad al-Kasasbeh asked that ISIS “be supportive of our brother Moaz and to be merciful on him, please send him back to us. He is just a soldier who is following orders and has no authority.”
Moaz al-Kasasbeh is a “pious man who prays and fasts and he always flies with his Quran with him,” his brother said.
Al-Kasasbeh’s capture is a frightening reminder that it could have been any pilot downed and taken, including one from the United States which is flying F-16s in the area.
Jordan is one of several key nations helping the United States and other Western nations degrade and destroy ISIS which has cut a murderous path through Iraq and Syria in its ultimate quest to establish a caliphate, or Islamic state, across those countries.
The captured pilot’s uncle is retired Jordanian Maj. Gen. Fahd al-Kasasbeh who identified his nephew in photos of the pilot that appeared on ISIS-affiliated Twitter account. The retired general told CNN that he’d asked Maj. Gen. Mansour S. Al Jabour, head of the Royal Jordanian Air Force, to investigate and take all necessary actions