Jordanian officials who only a week ago were vowing vengeance on the Islamic State barbarians who burned a captured pilot alive were bragging Monday that their bloodthirsty bombing campaign was already paying off.
So much so that the head of the Islamic State, the particularly horrible jihadist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is on the run and in fear for his life, a Jordanian general told NBC News.
“He is frightened by what we did in the last three days,” Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Jabour said.
ISIS leaders, he said, “always hide and they are always on the move but we have assets always in the air for an opportunity to target al-Baghdadi and his gang.”
Jordanian airstrikes over the weekend killed up to 7,000 ISIS fighters at bases and arms depots in Syria, al-Jabour told reporters.
And there’s more to come, he declared.
“We are determined to wipe them from the face of the Earth,” al-Jabour told Reuters. “We achieved what we aimed for. We destroyed logistics centers, arms depots and targeted hideouts of their fighters.”
Among those killed as Mullah Abdul Rauf, a former Taliban commander who was released from custody at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2007.
If the Jordanians get their way, al-Baghdadi will be joining Rauf and the thousands of other casualties over the weekend – and soon.
“We will not hesitate,” al-Jabour said. “He is going to be on top of our list.”
Al-Baghdadi is rarely seen in public, according to news reports.
His current headquarters are unknown.
I have a soft spot for Jordan in my heart. I knew one of the princes of Jordan, Raj, in college. He was a great guy and when I delivered my first child, he brought flowers and my finals to me and spent time with my husband while visiting me. Raj is a good man. We don’t agree on religion, but that doesn’t change the fact that he is my friend and there are good people everywhere. I truly hope that Jordan gets the vengeance they seek against ISIS and the Caliphate. It would be a tremendous victory and the good guys would prevail. Too bad Obama’s not one of the good guys.