Cairo: Terrorist outfit Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) has release a new video showing a Jordanian pilot captured by the extremist group being burned to death.
The 20-minute-long video was released on websites and bore the logo of the extremist group's al-Furqan media service. The video featured the slick production and graphics used in previous videos released by the group.
Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, 26, is shown inside the cage with his clothes dampened with flammable liquid, and one of the masked fighters holds a torch, setting alight a line of fuel which leads into the cage. The man is set ablaze and kneels to the ground. Fighters then pour debris, including broken masonry, over the cage which a bulldozer then flattens, with the body still inside.
Kaseasbeh fell into the hands of the militants in December last year when his Jordanian F-16 crashed near Raqqa, Syria, the de facto capital of the group's self-styled caliphate. He was the first pilot from the US-led coalition to be captured.
Meanwhile, Jordan government has confirmed the killing of the pilot and retaliated by executing two prisoners, including Sajida al-Rishawi, an al-Qaida prisoner.
The executions at dawn today came just hours after Islamic State militants released a video showing a captured Jordanian fighter pilot being burned alive in a cage.
Government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani said that two prisoners, Sajida al-Rishawi and Ziad al-Karbouli, were executed early Wednesday.
ISIS had demanded release of Sajida al-Rishawi for Kaseasbeh. Rishawi faced death in Jordan for her role in a 2005 hotel attack that killed 60 people.
Jordan has been mounting air raids in Syria as part of the US-led alliance against Islamic State insurgents.
Jordanian King Abdullah II and US President Barack Obama vowed not to let up in the fight against the Islamic State group.
Offering his ‘deepest condolences' to the King , the White House quoted Obama as saying, "The President and King Abdullah reaffirmed that the vile murder of this brave Jordanian will only serve to steel the international community's resolve to destroy ISIL.”
“Lieutenant Al-Kaseasbeh's dedication, courage and service to his country and family represent universal human values that stand in opposition to the cowardice and depravity of ISIL, which has been so broadly rejected around the globe,” the US President added.
Last week, an audio message from the Islamic State group had emerged saying the pilot would be killed if Rishawi not released on Thursday.
The incident has taken place just three-day after a video surfaced showing Japanese journalist Kenji Goto being beheaded by ISIS terrorists.
The Islamic State extremist group, which controls around a third of Syria and neighboring 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. Other videos and images show the killing of scores of captured Syrian and Iraqi soldiers. Tuesday's was the first to show a captive being burned alive.
