“Islamic State” extremists with the Jordanian pilot, in Raqqa, Syria, Dec. 24.

AMMAN — “Islamic State” militants took a Jordanian pilot prisoner after his warplane came down in northeast Syria on Wednesday, the first captive taken from the U.S.-led coalition battling the jihadi group.

Jordan’s armed forces said one of its pilots had been captured after a coalition air raid over the province of Raqqa. There were contradictory accounts as to whether his aircraft had been shot down or not.

“Jordan holds the group (IS) and its supporters responsible for the safety of the pilot and his life,” said a statement read out on state television.

It said the F-16 warplane had crashed during a Jordanian air force “military mission against the hideouts of the terrorist group.”

 King Abdullah met top commanders in Jordanian military headquarters, where a round-the-clock operations room had been set up after the pilot’s capture.

The U.S. military’s Central Command said evidence showed “Islamic State” did not shoot down the aircraft. It did not disclose the nature of that evidence.

The head of Central Command, General Lloyd Austin, said the United States would “support efforts to ensure his safe recovery and will not tolerate ISIL’s attempts to misrepresent or exploit this unfortunate aircraft crash for their own purposes.”

One U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said U.S. aircraft took to the air once the Jordanian jet crashed but the pilot was picked up before any rescue attempt could be launched.

The Jordanian statement described IS as a “group that does not conceal its terrorist plots, committing many criminal acts from wanton destruction to killing innocent Muslims and non-Muslims in Syria and Iraq.”

Islamic State social media published pictures appearing to show the pilot being held by the group’s fighters and images of what they said was his Jordanian military ID card.

The images were later verified by relatives who said they had been notified by the head of the Jordanian air force that the pilot was First Lieutenant Muath al-Kasaesbeh, aged 27. The army separately confirmed his name.

His father, Safi Yousef, appealed to the captors to show mercy and release his son, whom relatives say is a pious Muslim.