3 days ago
I watched ISIS burn my pilot brother alive in a cage – I begged the air force to bomb jail so he'd be spared cruel death
THE brother of a pilot who was burned alive in Syria by ISIS said he begged air forces to bomb the jail where he was being held to spare him a cruel death.
Speaking at the Stockholm district
court
on Wednesday, Jawdat al-Kassasbeh recounted the turmoil he and his family have endured since his brother Maaz al-Kassasbeh was
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Muath Al-Kasasbeh, 26, pictured trapped inside the cage in the horrific ISIS execution video
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The gruesome 2015 footage showed him being set alight
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Militants with the captured pilot
Credit: AP:Associated Press
The Royal Jordanian Air Force pilot was shot down in Raqqa, Syria, in December 2014. A few weeks later, ISIS released a video of al-Kasasbeh being burned alive in a cage.
Osama Krayem, a 32-year-old Swede already serving long prison sentences for his role in the Paris and Brussels attacks in 2015 and 2016, is on trial in Stockholm for his role in the pilot's killing.
The slain pilot's brother told the court of the physical and psychological trauma he and his family have suffered since his sibling's death.
He said he learned of his capture through a relative who worked at Jordan's foreign ministry and immediately headed to the air force headquarters.
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He said: "There, I see that the head of the air force and the operations teams are having a meeting on the subject... There were large screens showing images of Syria. He told me: 'I think he's in this house',
"Psychologically, I was not doing well at that moment. So I told the head of the air force that ... I thought (
"I asked if it would be possible to bomb the house so he could be spared an atrocious death," he added.
Jawdat later found out about his brother's death on TV.
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He said: "It was a shock. I watched the whole video but in bits. I couldn't watch the entire video until 2021."
He added that the cruel nature in which his brother was killed took a massive toll on the whole family, in particular his mother who had to be hospitalised.
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Jawdat also puts his sister's diabetes down to his brother's torturous death, as well as his dad's hypertension and poor mental health.
The
Syrian national Saddam al-Jamal was captured in Iraq after being lured from Syria by intelligence officers using the phone of Ismail al-Ethawi, an
Tipped as a
future
leader of the terrorist organisation, al-Jamal was known for his brutality.
Jordanian authorities accused him of also being behind the brutal execution of downed pilot.
A former commander in the Free Syrian
Army
which fought against President Bashar al-Assad's forces, al-Jamal had also taken part in multiple atrocities including a 2014 massacre in Deir Ezzor, Syria, in which 700 members of a tribe opposed to
He also ordered the execution of children, sometimes in front of their parents.
Al-Ethawi, who was captured in February, was a top aide to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Intelligence officers used his account on Telegram, a social media app favoured by terror organisations because it encrypts messages, to lure the other four high-ranking leaders out of Syria. The five of them were on a group chat together.
Iraqi security adviser Hisham al Hashemi told
Al-Hashemi also said that American troops also took part in the operation.
ISIS field commanders Mohamed al-Qadeer, Issam Abdel Kader al-Zawba'i and Omar Shehab El-Karboul were also captured in the
sting
, which has been praised by Donald Trump.
'Five Most Wanted leaders of ISIS just captured,' the US president posted on Twitter last week.
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Jordanian pilot executed by ISIS
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Saddam al-Jamal pictured in images broadcast on Iraqi TV
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The Jordanian pilot held captive by ISIS forces
Credit: Reuters
