 DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The first female air force pilot in the United Arab Emirates led airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Syria earlier this week, the federation's ambassador to Washington said on Thursday as he pledged his country will do "whatever is necessary" to defeat the militant group.  On Wednesday, Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle attempted to do a nice segment on "The Five" about the United Arab Emirates' first female fighter pilot. “She is fully qualified, highly trained, combat-ready pilot, and she led the mission.” 
 
 Emirates News Agency/WAM/AP Photo 
 
 As she underwent training, Mansouri previously said there was no difference in assignments for men and women, and she tried not to focus on her male colleagues. The Emirates, a seven-state federation that includes the capital of Abu Dhabi and the Mideast commercial hub of Dubai, is one of five Arab countries that have joined the U.S.-led coalition carrying out the airstrikes in Syria. Al-Mansouri was born in Abu Dhabi and graduated from the country's Khalifa bin Zayed Air College in 2007, according to a profile earlier this year in the government-owned newspaper The National. She attended UAE University, the first of the three government-sponsored universities in the country, and received a degree in English literature. Gutfeld then interrupts with, "The problem is after she bombed it she couldn't park it."
– If a country's going to send military pilots to fight ISIS, it's going to send its very best. Which is why the United Arab Emirates selected Maj. Mariam Al Mansouri, 35—the first female fighter pilot in the Emirates air force—to lead one of its airstrike missions in Syria on Monday, ABC News reports. The UAE ambassador to the US appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe today and confirmed Mansouri's involvement, saying, "She is [a] fully qualified, highly trained, combat-ready pilot, and she led the mission." Mansouri—who was born in Abu Dhabi and has seven siblings, according to Deraa Al Watan magazine via ABC—says that she tried not to focus on the male pilots sitting next to her during her intensive training. "Competing with oneself is conducive to continued learning," she says. She also holds a degree in English literature from Khalifa bin Zayed Air College, the AP reports. "Do you want a model or a society that allows women to become ministers in government, female fighter pilots, business executives, artists?" the ambassador asked, as per AP. "Or do you want a society where if a woman doesn't cover up in public she's beaten or she's lashed or she's raped?" Two male panelists on Fox News' The Five are catching flak from Gawker and others over their women-can't-park and boob jokes in the wake of the report.