IS video shows Jordanian captive being burnt alive

Jordan has confirmed that a video released online shows a pilot captured by the Islamic State in Syria being burned to death by his captors following a week-long drama over a possible prisoner exchange.

The video appeared to test Jordan’s continuing participation in the US-led coalition attacking the Islamic State group.

Jordan’s king, a close Western ally, has portrayed the campaign against the extremists as a battle over values, but the airstrikes against fellow Muslims are not popular in Jordan.

The spokesman for the Jordanian armed forces confirmed the death of the “hero pilot” Lt Moaz al Kasasbeh and vowed revenge.

“While the military forces mourn the martyr, they emphasise his blood will not be shed in vain. Our punishment and revenge will be as huge as the loss of the Jordanians,” Mamdouh al-Ameri said in a statement read on Jordanian TV.

al Kasasbeh (26) fell into the hands of the militants in December when his Jordanian F-16 crashed near Raqqa, Syria, the de facto capital of the group’s self-styled caliphate.

At a tribal meeting place where the pilot’s relatives have waited for weeks for word on his fate, chants against Jordan’s King Abdullah erupted and some family members wept. An uncle shouted in Arabic: “I received a phone call from the chief of staff saying God bless his soul.”

The pilot’s father, Safi, was surrounded by family members.

Following militant demands, Jordan’s government had said it was willing to trade Sajida al-Rishawi, an al Qaida prisoner, for the pilot, but that it wanted proof of life first. Al-Rishawi faces death in Jordan for her role in triple 2005 hotel bombings that killed 60 people – there are reports she will now be executed in revenge.

The video of the burning was released on militant websites and bore the logo of the extremist group’s al-Furqan media service. The 20-minute-long video featured the slick production and graphics used in previous IS videos.

The video included purported images of the pilot showing signs of having been beaten, including a black eye. At the end of the video he is purportedly shown wearing an orange jumpsuit and standing in an outdoor cage. A masked militant lights a line of fuel leading to the cage.

The latest video emerged three days after Japanese journalist Kenji Goto was beheaded by the militants. The fate of the two captives had been linked but a video of Goto's purported slaying released onSaturday made no mention of the pilot.

An audio message last week, also said to be from IS, said the pilot would be killed if al-Rishawi was not released on Thursday, without actually proposing a swap.

A scroll on Jordan TV said the pilot was killed on January 3rd, raising questions over whether any of the hostage negotiations were sincere.

US president Barack Obama said if the video is found to be authentic it would be “just one more indication of the viciousness and barbarity of this organisation”.

“It will redouble the vigilance and determination on the part of the global coalition to make sure that they are degraded and ultimately defeated,” he told reporters at the White House.

The IS group, which controls around a third of Syria and neighbouring Iraq, has released a series of grisly videos showing the killing of captives, including two American journalists, an American aid worker and two British aid workers. Tuesday’s was the first to show a captive being burned alive.

David L Phillips, a former State Department adviser on the Middle East, said he believes the brutal killing of the pilot could backfire, antagonising Sunni Muslims against IS, including Sunni tribes in Iraq.

“They need to have a welcome from Sunni Arabs in Anbar Province (in Iraq) to maintain their operations,” said Mr Phillips, director of the Programme on Peace-building and Human Rights at Columbia University.

He said the extremist group’s recent military setbacks may have fuelled the killings. “They need to compensate for that with increasingly gruesome killings of prisoners,” he said.

Jordan has made clear that the hostage crisis will not prompt it to leave the US-led military coalition against IS.

On Sunday, a day after a video emerged of the purported beheading of Mr Goto, Jordanian foreign minister Nasser Judeh insisted the kingdom remains “as committed as ever” to the coalition.

Experts are divided over whether Jordan faces a greater threat from extremists outside its borders or from those within. In recent months, there have been signs of greater support for IS ideas among Jordan’s young and poor. Last year, the government intensified a crackdown on IS sympathisers and the al Qaida branch in Syria.

About 220 Jordanians are in prison because of alleged ties to such groups, including 30 who are serving terms from three to five years. – PA