Syrian jailed in Jordan for plan to kill pilot

A Jordanian court on Monday condemned a Syrian ISIS sympathizer to seven and a half years in jail for plotting to kill a pilot, AFP reports.

Abdelnasser Barakat, 25, had plotted along with a Syrian minor to gun down a Jordanian pilot with an automatic weapon in the northern province of Irbid on the border with war-torn Syria, the court heard.

The minor is being tried separately in a juveniles' court.

The two Syrians were arrested in July and accused of having plotted the murder in response to calls from ISIS, which in February 2015 burnt alive a Jordanian pilot in a cage, to kill other pilots, offering a reward.

Jordan is part of a US-led military coalition which has been carrying out air strikes on the ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

According to sources close to Islamists, almost 4,000 Jordanians have joined jihadist groups in the two countries, and an estimated 420 Jordanian jihadists have been killed in Syria and Iraq since 2011.