Jordan vows to hunt down ISIL after video appears to show captive pilot Moaz al-Kassasbeh being burnt alive.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL) has published a video that purportedly shows the burning death of the captive Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kassasbeh.
The video released on Tuesday said that the killing of Kassasbeh was in response to Jordan's role in the US-led coalition against ISIL.
| It's a very clear message and they are trying to show maximum brutality. |
"His blood will not be shed in vain."
The country's military has officially informed Kassasbeh's family of his death, according to Al Jazeera's Nisreen el-Shamayleh, who is reporting from the Jordanian capital Amman.
According to state television a period of mourning has been declared. It also reported that the pilot, who had been in ISIL's captivity since December, was killed on January 3.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Abdel Bari Atwan, a Middle East analyst, said that if proven true, the killing of Kassasbeh is "unprecedented."
"It's a very clear message and they are trying to show maximum brutality," Atwan said, adding that ISIL is not interested in negotiations.
"They are looking to terrorise."
Jordan's King Abdullah, who is in Washington D.C. to meet top US official, has cut short his visit following the news of the pilot's death.
Reacting on the report, US President Barack Obama said that his government and coalition partners will redouble efforts "to make that that they [ISIL] are degraded and defeated."
"It is just one more indication of the viciousness and barbarity of this organisation."
Shock and anger
In the hometown of al-Kassasbeh, al-Karak, friends, family and supporters gathered to show their support and express anger at the the news of his death.
The video, which is 22 minutes and 34 seconds also called for the killing of other Jordanian pilots.
The 26-year-old First Lieutenant was taken hostage in ISIL's stronghold of Raqqa in Syria, after his F-16 jet crashed.
ISIL members have claimed to have shot down Kassasbeh's plane with a heat-seeking missile.
The armed group that controls vast swathes of Syria and Iraq has been demanding the release of Sajida al-Rishawi in exchange for Kassasbeh's life.
Rishawi has been held by Jordanian authorities since 2005, after being arrested and later sentenced to death "for conspiracy to carry out terror acts" after a triple bomb attack on the Radisson SAS hotel in Amman, the Jordanian capital.
Al Jazeera's el-Shamayleh, said that there have been reports that Rishawi and five other individuals on death row will be executed early on Wednesday in response to the killing of Kassasbeh.
The convicts have already been reportedly moved to al-Suwaqa jail, where executions in Jordan are typically carried out, a family member of one of the convicts told our correspondent.
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