ISIS Reportedly Burns Captured Jordanian Pilot Alive
ISIS has released video of Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh being burned alive. The brutal killing comes less than a week after a deal between ISIS and Jordan fell through because ISIS could not show proof of life for the 24-year-old lieutenant.
Al-Kasasbeh's F-16 fighter jet—part of the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS—was shot down in late December in northern Syria. According to Jordanian TV, al-Kasasbeh was killed a month ago. One of his relatives told Reuters that the Jordanian government has notified the family about the lieutenant's death.
The video, which can be viewed here, begins with several minutes of ISIS propaganda, including footage of killed ISIS members being removed from the rubble of buildings presumably destroyed during coalition airstrikes. It then cuts back and forth between close-ups al-Kasasbeh and the rubble-covered ISIS members before showing the pilot locked in a cage, covered with some sort of accelerant. A masked ISIS member lights a line of what appears to be hay leading to the cage and al-Kasasbeh is shown slowly burning to death. After he's stopped moving, a bulldozer crushes the cage and covers it with rubble.
Gruesome photos of the execution are embedded below.
@seraj3qlk3 الله اكبر والله الحمد والمنة #كلنا_معاذ #الدولة_الإسلامية pic.twitter.com/tWwn0FoNlA"
— Khaled_IbnAbdelAziz (@IbnAmghar19) February 3, 2015
7: الله اكبر والله الحمد والمنة #كلنا_معاذ #فطس_معاذ #الدولة_الإسلامية #شفاء_الصدور pic.twitter.com/yKFQIQ2fi7
— بغدادية (@baghdadia_4) February 3, 2015
Over the past ten days, ISIS has beheaded two Japanese hostages—journalist Kenji Goto and "security contractor" Haruna Yukawa—who were captured last year.
UPDATE 1:28 pm: Jordan has confirmed al-Kasasbeh's death and vowed revenge. From the Associated Press:
"The military forces announce that the hero pilot, Muath al-Kaseasbeh, has fallen as a martyr, and ask God to accept him with the martyrs," [Jordanian military spokesman] Mamdouh al-Ameri said in a statement read on Jordanian TV.
"While the military forces mourn the martyr, they emphasize his blood will not be shed in vain. Our punishment and revenge will be as huge as the loss of the Jordanians."