ISIL releases interview with captive Jordanian pilot

BEIRUT - The Associated Press

A picture taken on Dec. 24 reportedly shows an ISIL fighter collecting pieces from the remains of a Jordanian warplane from the US led coalition after it was shot down in Syria's Raqqa region. AFP Photo

The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has published in its monthly English-language magazine an interview with the Jordanian pilot captured last week after his plane crashed in northern Syria.

In his statements in the extremist group's Dabiq magazine, First Lietuenant Muadh al-Kasasbeh says his F-16 was shot down last week by a heat-seeking missile near the Islamic State group's de facto capital of Raqqa.

He says he ejected from the aircraft and landed in the Euphrates River, where he was taken captive by ISIL fighters.

The United States has denied that the ISIL shot down the Jordanian aircraft.

In the same issue of the magazine, the ISIL group also praises the attack on a café in Sydney, Australia this month.