Jordan's king rushed home today, cutting short a US trip, to rally public support for even tougher strikes against the Islamic State group after the militants released a video showing a captured Jordanian pilot being burned to death in a cage.
The gruesome killing of 26-year-old Lt Muath Al-Kaseasbeh, captured while participating in airstrikes by a US-led coalition targeting the militants, sparked outrage across the Middle East and anti-Islamic State protests in Jordan.
King Abdullah II, a staunch Western ally, returned home from a White House meeting with President Barack Obama during which both leaders affirmed their resolve to destroy the militants who have seized about one-third of Syria and Iraq.
Jordan believes the international community must intensify the campaign against Islamic State, said government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani. "This evil can and should be defeated," he said.
However, public opinion in Jordan has been ambiguous -- growing demands for revenge against the militants have been mixed with misgivings about Jordan's role in a bombing campaign widely seen as serving Western interests.
The extremists, meanwhile, appeared to be goading Jordan.
In Raqaa, the Islamic State group's de facto capital, the militants gleefully played al-Kaseasbeh's slaying on outdoor projectors, with some chanting "God is great," according to militant video posted online today that conformed to Associated Press reporting of the event.
In the 20-minute video, the pilot displayed signs of having been beaten, including a black eye. Toward the end of the clip, he is shown wearing an orange jumpsuit. He stands in an outdoor cage as a masked militant ignites a line of fuel leading to it.
The video, released on militant websites and bearing the logo of the extremist group's al-Furqan media service, featured the slick production and graphics used in previous Islamic State videos. It could not independently be confirmed by the AP.
After the video's release, a wave of condemnation washed across the Middle East, signaling that the Islamic State militants might have overplayed their hand by putting their brutality toward a fellow Muslim on display.
Some said this could trigger a backlash among Sunni Muslims in the region, the main reservoir of potential IS supporters.
Abdullah al-Muhaysni, a prominent Saudi sheik with close links to jihadi groups, said on his Twitter account that while he believes those carrying out airstrikes against the IS group deserve to be killed, the Jordanian pilot's immolation was too barbaric and generated sympathy for the man.
