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ISIS Takes Credit for Burning Jordanian Pilot Alive

by TheTower.org Staff |

A video released today shows the execution by burning of a Jordanian pilot, Moaz al-Kasasbeh, who was captured by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) when his plane was shot down in December near Raqqa in Syria.

The BBC reports:

Jordan has confirmed the death of pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh after a video published online by Islamic State (IS) claimed to show him being burned alive.

The video shows a man standing in a cage and engulfed in flames. Intelligence officials are working to confirm it is genuine. …

The highly produced 22-minute film includes a sequence showing the Jordanian pilot walking at gunpoint amongst rubble apparently caused by coalition air strikes that targeted jihadists.

According to the BBC, citing Jordanian sources, Kasabeh was actually killed in January.

Jordan promised “punishment and revenge.”

Shortly after the video surfaced, Jordan transferred all ISIS prisoners to a prison where executions are carried out.

Jordan announced that it would execute Sajida al-Rishawi at dawn Wednesday. Al-Rishawi was a failed suicide bomber who was condemned for death for her involvement in a series of deadly attacks ten years ago.

The capture of Kasabeh has had the effect of rallying Jordanian society around the pilot. David Schenker observed a few weeks ago:

For the time being, at least, it appears that Kasasbah’s capture is generating a rally-around-the-flag effect in Jordan. “Suddenly,” Jordanian political analyst Oraib Rantawi recently observed, “most if not all of Jordanian families felt like they had a son named Moath Kasasbah.” Regardless of whether one agrees with or opposes the war on ISIS, Rantawi says, Jordan is witnessing “a higher degree of cohesion and unity behind the army, the air force, and Moath and his family.”

The Washington Post reported on President Barack Obama’s reaction to the killing.

Obama said he had just learned of the release of the video, which said it shows the death of Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh. The National Security Council said intelligence officials are working to confirm the authenticity of the video.

“It’s just one more indication of the viciousness and barbarity of this organization,” Obama said. “And I think it will redouble the vigilance and determination on the part of the global coalition to make sure that they are degraded and ultimately defeated.”

Obama, who was speaking before a White House meeting with people who wrote him letters, said the Islamic State “appears interested in only death and destruction.”

Both the president and Vice President Joe Biden are to meet this evening with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who is currently in Washington.

[Photo: New York Daily News / YouTube ]

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