WATCH ABOVE: King Abdullah II of Jordan vowed to wage a “harsh” war against the Islamic State in Syria. And now the Pentagon says the U.S. military will do more to help Jordan in that fight. Susan McGinnis reports from Washington, D.C.
The capture and barbaric murder of Jordanian fighter pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh raises concerns about the dangers faced by pilots taking part in the airstrikes against ISIS and the plans in place to rescue a downed pilot.
If the execution was meant to frighten Jordan — or coalition members, including Canada – into withdrawing its support for and involvement in the U.S.-led bombing campaign against ISIS targets, it seems to have failed. Jordan has vowed an “earth-shaking” response to avenge the murder of the 26-year-old pilot.
Jordan “temporarily” halted its sorties after the al-Kaseasbeh’s capture, but the pilot’s execution has prompted the government to ramp up its involvement in the anti-ISIS campaign.
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And, Defence Minister Rob Nicholson showed no signs of Canada backing down either.
“Canada stands shoulder to shoulder with our allies against these acts of terror,” Nicholson affirmed on Wednesday, the same day Canadian fighter jets launched airstrikes in Iraq, hitting a compound that was used as a staging area for extremists who’ve been launching guerilla-style raids into Baghdad.
Canadian aircraft are not known to have come under fire while carrying out or assisting with airstrikes in Iraq. But Canadian troops, who were sent to Iraq to support Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, have been fired at on at least three occasions.
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Rescuing a downed pilot is difficult enough when it happens on home soil, such as during a training operation, where resources are more readily accessible, said Dr. Eric Ouellet, a defence studies professor at the Royal Military College of Canada.
“We have the National Search and Rescue Secretariat here in Canada and then whoever is closest will be contacted for help, whether it’s the RCMP, the Coast Guard, the provincial police, etc.
The U.S. is the only country that really has the “capacity” to do such an operation, Ouellet said.
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Furthermore, there are different protocols for when an enemy captures a downed pilot.
“It depends where it is, but would usually involve special forces,” said Ouellet, who has an expertise in irregular warfare, counterinsurgency and strategic military command and decision-making.
There is normally a “memorandum of understanding” when militaries are involved in an international coalition such as this one.
Dept. of National Defence spokesperson Isabelle Bresse told Global News, in an e-mail, the Canadian Forces are “operating with military partners who are contributing combat search and rescue (CSAR) capabilities to this coalition.” She said those resources could be called on if needed.
“In order to protect the safety of our deployed aircrew and in the interests of operational security, we will not discuss the details regarding combat search and rescue procedures,” she said.
But for the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), another member of the coalition involved in anti-ISIS airstrikes, the concern for pilot safety was serious enough for the government to suspend its participation in the campaign shortly after ISIS took al-Kaseasbeh hostage.
The Guardian reported Wednesday “a lack of contingency plans to rescued downed aircrew” led to the U.A.E. decision.
“The United Arab Emirates are demanding that the Pentagon improve its search-and-rescue efforts, including the use of V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, in northern Iraq, closer to the battleground, instead of basing the missions in Kuwait,” The New York Times reported, citing a U.S. official source.
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Like the U.S., Canada’s six CF-18 fighter jets, two Aurora CP-140 surveillance planes, a Polaris C-150 refueling jet, and some 600 Canadian Forces personnel, are stationed in Kuwait.
CNN reported late Wednesday the U.S. had begun moving search and rescue “assets” into northern Iraq, but that it was not because of the U.A.E. revelations.
ISIS claimed it shot down al-Kaseasbeh’s jet, but reports suggested it crashed due to mechanical failure.
The mechanical state of his jet may have led al-Kaseasbeh to his horrific fate, but Ouellet said “no plane is invincible.
But as Ouellet explained, the logistics of a rescue operation depend on how dangerous an area they may need to go into.
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Al-Kaseasbeh ejected from his F-16 fighter jet on Dec. 24, after his aircraft went down while taking part in a bombing mission near Raqqa, Syria — an ISIS stronghold and the de-facto capital of its self-declared caliphate, the Islamic State.
The added concern with ISIS taking a foreign pilot hostage is that the Sunni militant group isn’t likely to respect the Geneva Convention relative to the treatment of prisoners of war.
Al-Kaeasbeh was paraded to his death, doused in fuel, locked in a cage and set ablaze. The video, posted to various websites on Tuesday, was reportedly screened on a large, outdoor screen in Raqqa for all to see.
Ouellet noted there have been debates over training pilots and other military personnel for the chance they could be captured.
He said the first goal is to obviously to avoid being captured, but if a pilot or soldier is taken prisoner, they are only bound by their requirements under the Geneva Convention, which means providing only his or her “surname, first names and rank, date of birth, and army, regimental, personal or serial number, or failing this, equivalent information.”
With files from The Canadian Press
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