'We have confirmed reports that IS members took a (non-Syrian) Arab pilot prisoner after shooting his plane down with an anti-aircraft missile near Raqa city,' the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday.

The Isis branch in Raqqa published photographs on jihadist websites purporting to show its fighters holding the captured pilot, with a caption identifying him as Jordanian.

In October CBS News reported that Islamic State, also known as Isis, is now in possession of MANPADS - shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles. 

The US-led coalition has carried out hundreds of air strikes against IS positions in Syria since September 23.

Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have joined in air strikes against the extremist group, while Qatar is providing logistical support.

Over the past week, Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters have been battling Isis to liberate the town of Sinjar, a tiny desert community in northern Iraq that the gunmen overran in August, massacring and enslaving hundreds of its residents.

The Islamic State group swept into Sinjar and surrounding villages as part of their summer blitz across northern Iraq. 

The advance of the extremists struck particular fear there. Much of the population belongs to the minority Yazidi religious community, a tiny sect that the Sunni Muslim radicals consider heretics.

Hundreds were killed, and hundreds more Yazidi women and girls were taken captive by the militants, turned into sex slaves or forcibly 'married' to Islamic State supporters in Syria and Iraq.

Thousands of other Yazidis fled into Mount Sinjar, a long, steep mountain range that erupts from the flat desert landscape and looms over the town. There they languished for weeks with little food or protection until they were rescued, many by Syrian Kurds who freed a corridor to reach them.

Now, Iraqi Kurdish fighters are on an offensive to push back the Islamic State in this corner of Iraq near the Syrian border.

Meanwhile, officials say a suicide attack against pro-government, anti-Islamic State group Sunni militias near Baghdad has killed at least 13 people.

A police officer says the attacker blew himself up early Wednesday morning among a group of militiamen gathered at a military base south of Baghdad to receive their monthly payment. He said 10 militiamen and three soldiers were killed and 25 others wounded.

The group, known as Sahwa, is made up of Sunni militiamen who joined U.S. troops in the fight against al-Qaida during the height of the insurgency in 2007 and 2008. They are viewed as traitors by the Sunni militants.

A medical official confirmed the casualty figures. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information to the media.

(dailymail.co.uk)