The director of the extremist-monitoring SITE Group says ISIS has released video footage of Jordanian pilot and hostage Moaz al-Kasasbeh being burned alive, and images circulating online appear to show al-Kasasbeh being consmued by fire inside a cage. Jordan’s government had attempted to negotiate, apparently unsuccessfully, for his release. From the New York Times:
The pilot, First Lt. Moaz al-Kasasbeh, was captured by the Islamic State on Dec. 24, after his F-16 fighter jet went down over northern Syria. His captivity has transfixed his home country, where the 26-year-old pilot comes from a prominent tribe.
His government had hoped to trade a woman incarcerated for a 2005 bombing, but the talks fell apart when ISIS insisted it would only provide proof the pilot was still living in return for the female prisoner.
Reuters reports that Jordanian authorities have informed al-Kasasbeh’s family that he has been killed.
