Muath al-Kasasbeh

ISIL held al-Kasasbeh captive before killing him in early January 2015. It then conducted negotiations with the Jordanian government, claiming it would spare al-Kasabeh's life and free Japanese journalist Kenji Goto in exchange for Sajida al-Rishawi, a woman sentenced to death by Jordan for attempted terrorism and possessing explosives. After the Jordanian government insisted on freeing al-Kasasbeh as part of the deal and showing proof that he was alive before it would exchange al-Rishawi, ISIL released a video on 3 February 2015 showing al-Kasasbeh being burned to death while trapped inside a cage.

A military operation to free al-Kasasbeh, possibly by Jordanian special forces, may have been made on 1 January 2015. Members of an anti-ISIL group in Raqqa, named Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, said they witnessed coalition jets bombing targets in Raqqa in some of the fiercest strikes of the anti-ISIL campaign, while four helicopters dropped off soldiers wearing purported Jordanian Army uniforms. The mission was aborted when ISIL fighters in the area began firing anti-aircraft missiles at the helicopters, forcing a retreat.

ISIL supporters used the Arabic hashtag #SuggestAWayToKillTheJordanianPilotPig on Twitter, crowdsourcing and publicizing their execution of al-Kasasbeh. A film released by the group showed al-Kasasbeh was burned to death by ISIL members in January 2015. His killing was recorded on video and shown near the end of a 22-minute "snuff film" entitled Healing the Believers' Chests, credited to the ISIL official Al Furqan Media Foundation and distributed via a Twitter account known as a source for ISIL propaganda, and on video-sharing sites.

On 25 February 2015, al-l'tisam, a media arm of ISIL, released a video entitled Message to Jordan. It showed new excerpts from the video of al-Kasasbeh's burning.

On 4 February 2015, al-Rishawi and another Iraqi jihadist who was also on death row, Ziad Khalaf al-Karbouly, were executed by hanging in Swaqa Prison, expedited in response to al-Kasasbeh's death.

His fighter crashed near Raqqa, Syria, on 24 December 2014 during the military intervention against the Islamic State. United States and Jordanian officials said that the crash was caused by mechanical problems, while ISIL claimed that the plane was hit by a heat-seeking missile.

Al-Kasasbeh married engineer Anwar al-Tarawneh in September 2014. Prior to his capture, al-Kasasbeh lived in the village of Ay in the Karak Mountains in Karak Governorate, 90 miles (140 km) south of Amman.

The plane al-Kasasbeh was piloting, a Lockheed Martin F-16 formerly used by the Royal Belgian Air Force, crashed after suffering from mechanical problems on 24 December 2014 during a bombing raid on a brick factory during the military intervention against the Islamic State. The Jordanian government said a technical failure caused him to eject after flying at low altitude, but the Islamic State claimed it shot down his aircraft. He ejected and parachuted into a lake near Raqqa, Syria. He was quickly captured by Islamic State militants and pulled from the water. US officials state they initiated a search and rescue mission, but they did not locate him before he was captured. On 30 December 2014, al-Kasasbeh appeared in a detailed interview with ISIL's Dabiq magazine.

In 2009, al-Kasasbeh graduated from the King Hussein Air College and joined the Royal Jordanian Air Force. He completed his F-16 training in The Royal Jordanian Air Force, followed by training with the Republic of Korea Air Force's 120th Flying Squadron, at Seosan Air Base under a South Korean-Jordanian exchange programme. By 2012 he qualified as an operational F-16 pilot and was assigned to No. 1 Squadron at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base.

Unsuccessful negotiations took place for his release. His family applied pressure on the Jordanian government to arrange for his release. Originally, it was proposed to trade him and a kidnapped Japanese journalist, Kenji Goto, for Sajida al-Rishawi, a failed Iraqi suicide bomber incarcerated in Jordan since she took part in the 2005 Amman hotel bombings, and sentenced to death. The Jordanian government insisted on proof that al-Kasasbeh was still alive before it could proceed with a swap. ISIL refused and published the video of his killing. Some analysts have assessed ISIL's offer of prisoner exchange as a gimmick that was meant to put into disrepute or mock the commitment of the Jordanian government to the military intervention against it. There have also been suggestions that the proposal was a tactic intended to free its valued member in exchange for a corpse.

Muath Safi Yousef al-Kasasbeh (Arabic: معاذ صافي يوسف الكساسبة ‎  South Levantine pronunciation: [mʊˈʕaːð-, mʊˈʕaːz ˈsˤɑːfi ˈjuːsef el kaˈsaːsbe] ; 29 May 1988 – c. 3 January 2015) was a Royal Jordanian Air Force pilot who was captured and burned to death by the militant terrorist group ISIL after his F-16 fighter aircraft crashed over Syria.