ISIL claims to have burned Jordanian pilot alive

BEIRUT

A still image released by ISIL's branch in Raqqa on jihadist websites on December 24, 2014 purportedly shows the Jordanian pilot (C) captured by ISIL fighters after they shot down a warplane from the US-led coalition with an anti-aircraft missile near Raqqa city.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) released a video on Feb. 3 purportedly showing the burning alive of a Jordanian pilot it had captured in December.

The video released online showed images of a man purported to be Maaz al-Kassasbeh engulfed in flames inside a metal cage.

The head of the Jordanian armed forces told the family of the pilot that he had been killed, a member of the family told Reuters. 

Reuters could not immediately confirm the five images, which showed a burning man standing in a black cage. 

Lt. al-Kaseasbeh, 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.

He was the first pilot from the U.S.-led coalition to be captured.

Following militant demands, Jordan’s government had said it was willing to trade Sajida al-Rishawi, an al Qaida prisoner, for the pilot. Al-Rishawi faces death in Jordan for her role in a 2005 hotel attack that killed 60 people.