Prince Khaled bin Salman, the son of the heir to the Saudi Arabian throne, joined a bombing raid against ISIS — and now he's receiving death threats.
The Saudi government released photos of the prince sitting in the cockpit of his Tornado jet, which he reportedly piloted in U.S.-led strikes against ISIS militants in Iraq. Bin Salman's father, Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz, is the country's defense minister and is also a former fighter pilot.
The prince reportedly piloted one of four Saudi planes on bombing runs over Syria as jets from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates joined the U.S. for a second night. The United Arab Emirates' first female air force pilot, Major Marian Al Mansouri, joined the prince in the skies.
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While the photographs of the prince's alleged participation in the attacks against ISIS were reportedly intended to assure the world that Saudi Arabia does not support extremist groups, not everyone was happy with the prince after the photos were released. The prince's participation reportedly resulted in online death threats, and some Saudis allegedly tweeted that the Saudi government has made itself "an enemy of Islam" for bombing ISIS. After the Saudi Press Agency released photos of eight Saudi airmen who had allegedly participated in the ISIS bombings, some Twitter users wrote that the prince and the other Saudis were "wanted by IS" and that their throats "will sooner or later be slit." --Meghan DeMaria
