US fighter pilot killed in Middle East: Central Command

The Unites States’ military says one of its fighter pilots has been killed in a crash in the Middle East, where US warplanes are conducting airstrikes against the ISIL terrorist group.

The US Central Command said in a statement issued on Monday that the accident took place on Sunday night and that it did not happen in a combat situation.

It said that the F-16 fighter aircraft crashed as it was returning to its base at an unspecified location in the Middle East region shortly after take-off.

The cause of the incident is under investigation and emergency workers were still at the scene, the Central Command said.

US officials also claimed that the incident did not take place in Iraq or Syria, where the US Air Force is engaged in a bombing campaign against ISIL militants.

Since late September, the US and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out airstrikes against ISIL inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate.

US warplanes have been conducting airstrikes against ISIL in Iraq since early August. Some Western states have also participated in some of the strikes in Iraq.

The US-led coalition has done little to stop the ISIL’s advances in parts of Syria and in western Iraq.

Some analysts have criticized the aerial military campaign in Syria, saying the strikes are meant to destroy the Arab country’s infrastructure.

Alan Sabrosky, a US Marine Corps veteran, has said that the United States’ airstrikes in Syria often target militants with “no military value” and actually aim at the country’s infrastructure.