Jordan hits ISIL targets in southern Syria

Military strikes armed group two years after anJordanian
 pilot was captured and burned alive in a cage.

Jordan said late on Saturday that its warplanes bombed
positions held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
(ISIL) group in southern Syria, two years after one of its 
pilots was captured and killed by the armed group.

Friday's strikes came on the second anniversary of ISIL's
release of video showing pilot Moaz al-Kassasbeh being
burned alive in a cage after his aircraft crashed in Syria in
December 2014.

"Jordanian Air Force planes, in memory of our martyrs 
who have fallen in our war against terrorism, on Friday evening targeted various positions of the terrorist gang 
Daesh in southern Syria," the military said in a statement, using the Arabic acronym for ISIL.


It said the strikes against targets including a captured former
Syrian army base killed and wounded several ISIL members
and destroyed an arms depot, a car bomb workshop and a
barracks.

Jordanian forces used drones and precision-guided 
munitions in the operation, which was part of the "kingdom's efforts to eradicate the terrorist group", it said. The kingdom
 is part of an international coalition battling ISIL, also known
 as ISIS, in Syria and Iraq.

The strikes came as an alliance of US-backed fighters
 began a new phase of its campaign on the ISIL-held city 
of Raqqa in northern Syria, aiming to complete its encirclement of the group's stronghold.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, a coalition of Kurdish and 
Arab factions primarily led by the Kurdish YPG, has been a
 key ground ally of the US-led coalition in the fight against ISIL.