Jordan launches airstrikes against ISIS in Syria

“The plan … is to go after (ISIS) targets in order to degrade them and defeat them,” spokesman Mohammed al-Momani said. “We want to make sure that they will pay for the crime they did and the atrocity they did to our pilot.”

Al-Momani said the airstrikes were being coordinated with coalition allies.

Jordan is riding a wave of anger following the brutal killing of one of its pilots by ISIS. A video posted by the group showed Lt. Moath al-Kasasbeh being burned alive while confined in a cage.

The 27-year-old’s family is calling for revenge.

The airstrikes came as mourners by the thousands poured into al-Kasasbeh’s hometown, the village of Ay, to pay their respects to the family.

King Abdullah II led a delegation of high-level dignitaries and senior tribesman.

The pilot was one of eight children, according to the Jordan Times. He was from Karak governorate and graduated from King Hussein Air College, the newspaper said.

At the time of his capture, his father told the paper that his son was “a very modest and religious person” who memorized the Quran and “was never harmful to anyone.”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry described al-Kasasbeh as everything ISIS is not: “He was brave, compassionate and principled.”

“That he was murdered after his father’s plea for compassion reminds all the world that this foe has no agenda other than to kill and destroy, and places no value on life, including that of fellow Muslims,” Kerry said.

ISIS is known to be holding at least two Western hostages still: John Cantlie, a British journalist who has appeared in a number of ISIS-produced videos, and an American woman who is a 26-year-old aid worker.

CNN’s Kareem Khadder. Ali Younes, Mohammed Tawfeeq, Greg Botelho, Becky Anderson, Jim Sciutto, Barbara Starr, Ed Payne, Caroline Faraj, Jessica King and Samira Said contributed to this report.

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