CRI听力:Jordan to Secure Release of Captured Pilot

The Jordanian government says it's taking all the steps it can to try to secure the release of one of its military pilots being held by Islamic State militants.

The pilot's plane came down Wednesday in northeast Syria.

A round-the-clock operations room has been set up in Jordan's military headquarters to deal with the pilot's capture.

Mohammad al-Momani is a Jordanian government spokesman.

"At this point with the little information we have I think what we can say is that the government will take every necessary step needed in order to secure his coming back to his home and his family."

News of the capture of the Jordanian pilot has reverberated across Jordan, with King Abdullah reportedly personally visiting the operations center.

27-year-old First Lieutenant Muath al-Kasaesbeh has become the pilot to be captured from the U.S.-led coalition bombing Islamic State targets.

There are contradictory accounts as to whether his aircraft was shot down or not.

The Islamic State claims it shot down the plane with a heat-seeking missile.

However, US officials say the claim is not true, even though the militant group has access to stores of US weapons captured from Iraqi troops during the groups lightening offensive into Iraq earlier this year.

For more on the fate of the Jordanian pilot, CRI's Zhou Jingnan spoke earlier with Li Guofu, Senior Research Fellow with China Institute of International Studies.