[Female UAE pilot Mariam Al Mansouri 'leads strikes'on Jihadists]
oped: Just another example of President Obama's failure to support our allies in the war against radical Islam...Obama won't even commit to downed pilot rescue...so telling he supports ISIS et el
Washington (AFP) - The United Arab Emirates pulled out of the air campaign fighting Islamic State militants after the capture of a Jordanian pilot who has since been killed by the extremists, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
The pilot was captured in
December and Islamic State militants released a video Tuesday showing
the man in a cage being burned alive.
The
key US ally in the campaign suspended air strikes in December after the
capture, fearing for the fate of its pilots, the Times said, quoting US
officials.
The United Arab Emirates want
the US to improve its search-and-rescue efforts, including the use of
V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, in northern Iraq, closer to the
battleground.
As it stands, the US-led mission is based in Kuwait, administration officials said, according to the Times.
It
said UAE pilots will not rejoin the fight until the Ospreys -- which
take off and land like helicopters but fly like planes -- are deployed
in northern Iraq.
The
Jordanian pilot was captured by Islamic State militants within minutes
of his plane crashing in December near Raqqa, Syria, the Times said,
quoting a senior US military official.
But UAE officials questioned if
American military rescue teams would have been able to reach the pilot
even if there had been more time for a rescue effort, administration
officials said.
The UAE
foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, asked
Barbara Leaf, the new US ambassador, why the United States had not put
proper resources in northern Iraq for rescuing downed pilots, a senior
administration official said, according to the Times.
The UAE declined comment.
"We
cannot comment on issues discussed in private meetings," an official
source said in Abu Dhabi after the publication of the Times article.
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