A man purported to be Islamic State captive Jordanian pilotLt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh (in orange jumpsuit) stands in front of armed men in this still image from an undated video filmed from an undisclosed location made available on social media on Feb. 3. (Reuters Tv/Reuters)
2:22 PM
AMMAN, Jordan — The Islamic State released a video Tuesday that purports to show its fighters burning alive a Jordanian pilot who was captured in December by the extremist group after his plane crashed during a U.S.-led bombing run over Syria.
The Jordanian Armed Forces issued a statement saying that the 26-year-old pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, was killed a month ago on Jan. 3. The military denounced the Islamic State as a “terror group” and vowed “punishment and revenge.”
Relatives of the slain pilot left their homes in Amman and rushed to their tribal center in Karak, south of the capital.
Members of Jordanian public, via social media sites and radio call-in shows, demanded the immediate execution of jihadists with ties to the Islamic State who are being held in Jordanian prisons.
Among those being held by Jordan is Sajida al-Rishawi, an Iraqi woman convicted of a role in 2005 bombings that killed 60 people in Amman.
According to the SITE monitoring group, which follows militant Web sites, the 22-minute video, titled “Healing of the Believers’ Chests,” was released on social media even as Jordan struggled to learn the pilot’s fate.
Shortly after the video appeared online, Jordanian state TV reported that the pilot was killed on Jan. 3. It gave no further details on how the date was determined, but it suggested that it was new information because Jordanian officials sought “proof of life” evidence from the Islamic State as recently as earlier this week.
The killing appears to mark an effort by the Islamic State, a radical al-Qaeda offshoot also known as ISIS or ISIL, to present increasingly gruesome acts. Previously, the group decapitated its captives and then showed the head sitting on top of the body. Execution by decapitation in the Arab world, especially in Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally, is not uncommon.
Burning the pilot to death would represent a stunning escalation.
President Obama, speaking to reporters in Washington, called the video “just one more indication of the viciousness and barbarity” of the Islamic State.
Hours earlier, before the release of the video, Secretary of State John F. Kerry met with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and the country’s foreign minister, Nasser Judeh, as part of a visit to sign a deal for further U.S. aid to Jordan.
A Jordanian government official in Washington subsequently confirmed that King Abdullah II would cut short his visit to the United States and return immediately to Amman.
National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said in an e-mail that the U.S. government was aware of the video and that “the intelligence community is working to confirm its authenticity.”
“The United States strongly condemns ISIL’s actions, and we call for the immediate release of all those held captive by ISIL. We stand in solidarity with the government of Jordan and the Jordanian people,” she added.
The Islamic State released a video over the weekend that appeared to show the beheading of Kenji Goto, a Japanese journalist.
The video did not mention Kaseasbeh’s fate. However, the Islamic State had previously said it would kill both Kaseasbeh and Goto if Jordan failed to meet a Thursday deadline to release Rishawi.
The pilot was captured by the Islamic State in December, after his plane crashed in Syria during a bombing run. Although the Islamic State claimed that it had shot down his plane, U.S. Navy Cmdr. Lisa Brackenbury, a Central Command spokeswoman, said in December that while “a thorough investigation will be conducted, this was an aircraft crash and not the result of enemy action.”
Late last year, the Islamic State posted social media images of Kaseasbeh surrounded by masked militants, as his captors pulled him from a body of water.
According to SITE, the video shows “media footage of Jordan’s involvement in the U.S.-led coalition” against the Islamic State. Then, the video shows Kaseasbeh, with a black eye, “discussing Jordan’s operation in a news-style monologue.” The video then juxtaposes images of the pilot surrounded by militants, and images of the aftermath of bombings.
“At the end of the video, [Kaseasbeh] stands inside of a cage and is burned alive by fighters,” SITE writes.
Reuters reported that the head of Jordan’s armed forces personally notified Kaseasbeh’s family of the pilot’s death.
The killing risks undermining a U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State, which has seized large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria.
Jordan has absorbed a flood of refugees fleeing the militants from the civil war in Syria and the uprisings in Iraq. Jordan’s air force and intelligence agencies are active, public partners in the U.S. coalition against the Islamic State.
The capture of the Jordanian pilot, however, sparked an antiwar movement calling for Amman to pull out of the coalition. Kaseasbeh is from a large and influential tribe centered in Karak, a province south of Amman, and his people have been staging protests in front of government buildings. The demonstrators have stressed not only the pilot’s capture, but the growing number of Syrian civilians caught in the bombings.
The Jordanian government said last week it was prepared to swap a prisoner sentenced to death for her role in the 2005 Amman hotel bombings for the Jordanian pilot.
Jordan’s sensational offer to free the suicide bomber, an Iraqi whose device failed to explode, illustrated the tremendous pressure that King Abdullah and his government have faced over the pilot’s capture.
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