Jordan’s Air Force carried out numerous airstrikes on Thursday in the wake of the execution of one of its pilots captured by ISIS terrorists in Syria. Dubbed “Operation Martyr Muath,” the name of the Royal Jordanian Air Force pilot killed, RJAF fighters staged strikes with “dozens of jets,” the Petra state news agency announced. According to the Jordanian military, the strikes hit ISIS “training centers and ammunition dumps” with Jordanian officials declaring it would be “just the beginning” of an escalated campaign. The news wire Al Arabiya cited local Iraqi reports stating many of the RJAF strikes hit targets in Iraq, killing some 55 ISIS militants, including a senior leader known as the “Prince of Nineveh.” US Central Command said the coalition also escalated strikes on Wednesday and Thursday, and Jordan flew in those operations. Between Feb. 4 and Feb. 5, coalition aircraft pounded ISIS forces near Kobani, Syria, with 11 strikes— using bombers, fighters, and remotely piloted aircraft to hit nine tactical units, a “large tactical unit,” and destroying three staging positions and a fighting position, as well as six more in Iraq. On Feb. 5, in Syria, near Kobani, three strikes hit ISIS “tactical units” using bombers, fighters, and RPAs. An additional nine attacks were carried out in Iraq the same day.
In the wake of a major Chinese military shakeup, the head of U.S. Space Command warned of China’s “breathtakingly fast” advances in space during visits to Japan and South Korea. Gen. Stephen N. Whiting’s trip to the Indo-Pacific is his first overseas visit since taking command of SPACECOM in January.