BEIRUT -- Jordan threatened the Islamic State group on Thursday with "grave consequences" if militants harmed a Jordanian pilot captured after his F-16 crashed in northern Syria.
The warning, issued by Jordan's parliament, came as members of the pilot's family appealed to his captors to welcome him as a "guest" and to show him mercy as a fellow Muslim.
No new information on the fate of the pilot, 1st Lt. Mu'ath al-Kaseasbeh, has emerged since his jet went down Wednesday and supporters of the Islamic State distributed photos online that showed him in his underwear and with a bloody mouth as bearded gunmen led him away.
His plane was the first to crash since a U.S.-led coalition of countries, including the Arab states of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, began bombing Islamic State targets this year in an attempt to weaken the group's hold on territory in Syria and Iraq.
Al-Kaseasbeh is also the first military member of the coalition to be captured by the militants, raising the prospect that the group could use him for propaganda purposes or kill him in revenge.
The Islamic State often distributes videos of its fighters executing captured Syrian and Iraqi soldiers and has beheaded two U.S. and two British civilians in what it called revenge for their countries' war against it.
The Jordanian warning was issued by the lower house of the parliament, which said in a statement carried by the state-run Petra news agency that the Islamic State and its supporters would face "grave consequences" if the pilot is harmed.
The statement voiced continued support for Jordan's role in the coalition and urged the government of King Abdullah II to "do its utmost to ensure a safe return of the pilot."
The king met with the pilot's family Wednesday.
Images of the captive posted on the Internet by the group showed him appearing traumatized and disoriented as he was surrounded by triumphal militants. Some wore their customary face hoods, but others were clearly recognizable.
Al-Kaseasbeh's father, Safi Yousef al-Kaseasbeh, said in an interview with Reuters Television on Thursday that he did not consider his son to be a hostage of the militants.
"I don't call him a prisoner," he said, calling on the militants to treat him well. "I call him a guest of our brothers in Syria, of the Islamic State group.
"I direct a message to our generous brothers of the Islamic State in Syria: to host my son, the pilot Mu'ath, with generous hospitality," he said. "I ask God that their hearts are gathered together with love, and that he is returned to his family, wife and mother."
"We are all Muslims," he said.
It remains unclear whether the pilot's aircraft had a mechanical failure or was shot down with an anti-aircraft missile, as the Islamic State militants have claimed. U.S. military officials said Wednesday that there was no indication a missile had felled the plane.
But the pilot's uncle told journalists that the family had been told by the Jordanian government that the warplane was downed by a missile.
Speaking at a gathering of the al-Kaseasbeh family and extended tribe in the southern Jordanian town of Karak, Younes al-Kaseasbeh said the family was told that Mu'ath al-Kaseasbeh was flying at a height of 400 feet on a bombing mission when the militants hit his plane with a heat-seeking missile and the aircraft went down in the Euphrates River.
He said the pilots of three other warplanes in the same sortie had wanted to rescue him but were wary of striking militants in the area for fear of killing al-Kaseasbeh.
The United States and several Arab allies have been striking the Islamic State in Syria since Sept. 23, and U.S. and other international warplanes have been waging an air campaign against the extremists in Iraq for even longer. The campaign aims to push back the jihadist organization after it took over much of Iraq and Syria and declared a caliphate, or state ruled by Islamic law.
On Thursday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that government airstrikes in another Syrian stronghold of the Islamic State killed at least 21 people -- including children.
The Observatory said Syrian military aircraft struck two locations in the northern town of Qabassen, including a market, causing the casualties. The death toll was likely to rise because people were still digging through the rubble to find bodies. The strike was also reported by another Syrian monitoring group.
Elsewhere, Iraq and Turkey on Thursday discussed cooperation in countering the threat posed by the Islamic State, including an Iraqi request for intelligence sharing and the possible delivery of Turkish arms to Iraqi forces, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said.
Al-Abadi said during a visit to the Turkish capital, Ankara, that he had provided "lists" of things Iraq was requesting from Turkey that included military cooperation, training and delivering weapons to fighters.
"[The Islamic State] is not only a threat to Iraq and Turkey, but it is a threat to the whole region. Therefore, there is a need for cooperation. That's what we expect of Turkey," al-Abadi said.
"Whether it is military, intelligence sharing, training or even arms -- these were talked about," he said.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said his country is ready to provide Iraq the assistance it needed, though he didn't elaborate. He said the countries' defense ministries were holding discussions.
"On the issue of support, we are ready to provide training. ... We have provided support to the peshmerga forces that are battling Daesh in northern Iraq," Davutoglu said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. "We are open to all kinds of opinions concerning the support to be provided."
Turkey has said it is willing to train and equip forces fighting the Islamic State and has also allowed about 150 peshmerga fighters to cross into Syria from its territory, but it has been reluctant to provide greater support to the U.S.-led coalition. Turkey insists that the coalition must also aim to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, whom it regards as the source of the crisis in Syria.
Al-Abadi said the campaign against the Islamic State has been successful in weakening the group and driving it out of some regions but that the militants continue to pose a threat.
Information for this article was contributed by Ben Hubbard, Rana F. Sweis and Rick Gladstone of The New York Times and by Omar Akour, Diaa Hadid and Suzan Fraser of The Associated Press.
A Section on 12/26/2014