Brother of Jordanian pilot burnt alive in a cage in notorious ISIS execution reveals he begged air force to bomb house where he was being held 'to spare him an atrocious death'
The brother of a Jordanian pilot burned alive in Syria by the Islamic State has revealed that he pleaded for the air force to bomb the house where his captive sibling was being held to spare him from a horrific death at the hands of the terror group.
The brutal killing took place sometime in late 2014 or early 2015 and sparked outrage internationally.
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 suspected of war crimes and terrorist crimes for his role in the pilot's killing.
On December 24, 2014, an aircraft belonging to the Royal Jordanian Air Force crashed in Syria.
The pilot, Maaz al-Kassasbeh, was captured the same day by ISIS fighters near the central city of Raqqa and was burned alive in a cage sometime before February 3, 2015, when a video of the gruesome killing was published, according to the prosecution.
On Wednesday, Jawdat al-Kassasbeh, the brother of the pilot told the Stockholm district court of the physical and psychological trauma the family has suffered since the killing.
He said he learned of his brother's capture through a relative who worked at Jordan's foreign ministry and immediately went to the air force headquarters.
'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 testified.
'He told me: 'I think he's in this house',' he said.
'Psychologically, I was not doing well at that moment. So I told the head of the air force that ... I thought (ISIS fighters) would kill him in a horrible way. I asked if it would be possible to bomb the house so he could be spared an atrocious death,' he added.
The Swedish investigation describes the al-Kassasbeh family as having close ties to Jordan's royal family and military.
Jawdat al-Kassasbeh said he later learned of his brother's death on television.
'It was a shock. I watched the whole video but in bits. I couldn't watch the entire video until 2021,' he said.
When his mother learned of the execution, 'she had to be hospitalised immediately'.
His eldest sister 'developed diabetes', while their father 'contracted chronic illnesses, hypertension and is in poor psychological condition, he cries regularly,' al-Kassasbeh said.
Jihadist Krayem could be the first person to be convicted in connection with the heinous killing of Maaz al-Kassasbeh.
Prosecutors have said the killing was considered 'one of the most brutal murders committed by [ISIS] during the war in Syria'.
The killing of the pilot violates the laws of war, and the killing and video constitute terrorist activities, the Swedish Prosecution Authority said in a statement.
Under Swedish legislation, courts can try people for crimes against international law committed abroad.
The ISIS militant group once imposed a reign of terror over millions of people in Syria and Iraq, controlling swathes of the countries between 2014 and 2017 before it was defeated in its last bastions in 2019.
It is responsible for some of Europe's worst terror atrocities in recent years.
Krayem, who is from Malmo in southern Sweden, joined ISIS in Syria in 2014 before returning to Europe.
In June 2022, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison in France for assisting in the planning of the 2015 Paris attacks, in which 130 people died.
The following year, he was given a life sentence in Belgium for participating in the bombings on March 22, 2016, at Brussels' main airport and on the metro system, which killed 32 people.
Prior to his arrest on April 8, 2016, he was one of Europe's most wanted fugitives, and considered to be a hardened ISIS operative.
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The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Palestine Action to be banned after vandalism of planes at RAF base
The Home Secretary is preparing to ban Palestine Action following the group's vandalism of two planes at an RAF base. Yvette Cooper has decided to proscribe the group, making it a criminal offence to belong to or support Palestine Action. The decision comes after the group posted footage online showing two people inside the base at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire. The clip shows one person riding an electric scooter up to an Airbus Voyager air-to-air refuelling tanker and appearing to spray paint into its jet engine. The incident is being also investigated by counter terror police. A spokesperson for Palestine Action accused the UK of failing to meet its obligation to prevent or punish genocide. The spokesperson said: 'When our government fails to uphold their moral and legal obligations, it is the responsibility of ordinary citizens to take direct action. The terrorists are the ones committing a genocide, not those who break the tools used to commit it.' The Home Secretary has the power to proscribe an organisation under the Terrorism Act of 2000 if she believes it is 'concerned in terrorism'. Proscription will require Ms Cooper to lay an order in Parliament, which must then be debated and approved by both MPs and peers. Some 81 organisations have been proscribed under the 2000 Act, including Islamist terrorist groups such as Hamas and al Qaida, far-right groups such as National Action, and Russian private military company Wagner Group. Another 14 organisations connected with Northern Ireland are also banned under previous legislation, including the IRA and UDA. Belonging to or expressing support for a proscribed organisation, along with a number of other actions, are criminal offences carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison. Friday's incident at Brize Norton, described by the Prime Minister as 'disgraceful', prompted calls for Palestine Action to be banned. The group has staged a series of demonstrations in recent months, including spraying the London offices of Allianz Insurance with red paint over its alleged links to Israeli defence company Elbit, and vandalising Donald Trump's Turnberry golf course in South Ayrshire. The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) welcomed the news that Ms Cooper intended to proscribe the group, saying: 'Nobody should be surprised that those who vandalised Jewish premises with impunity have now been emboldened to sabotage RAF jets.' CAA chief executive Gideon Falter urged the Home Secretary to proscribe the Houthi rebel group and Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, adding: 'This country needs to clamp down on the domestic and foreign terrorists running amok on our soil.' Former home secretary Suella Braverman said it was 'absolutely the correct decision'. But Tom Southerden, of Amnesty International UK, said the human rights organisation was 'deeply concerned at the use of counter terrorism powers to target protest groups'. Mr Southerden said: 'Terrorism powers should never have been used to aggravate criminal charges against Palestine Action activists and they certainly shouldn't be used to ban them. 'Instead of suppressing protest against the UK's military support for Israel, the UK should be taking urgent action to prevent Israel's genocide and end any risk of UK complicity in it.'
Times
2 hours ago
- Times
Sex addict Anthony Weiner on jail, Trump and Hillary Clinton
As nominative determinism might suggest, Anthony Weiner was perhaps always doomed. A prominent New York congressman and rapidly rising star in the Democratic Party, married to Hillary Clinton's glamorous adviser, Huma Abedin, it all came crashing down — in spectacularly lurid style — in May 2011, when Weiner accidentally posted a sexually explicit photo of his bulging crotch to Twitter. The headlines wrote themselves, with the New York Post gleefully declaring, 'Weiner exposed'. First, though, he denied it, claiming his account had been hacked (the New York Post — 'Weiner: I'll stick it out'), before admitting to having sent similar pictures to numerous women ('Naked truth'), and finally resigning ('Weiner's rise and fall'). Six months later, Abedin gave birth to their son, Jordan. 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With someone he's dating? 'Dating is… It's a lame word…' He trails off before talking about the dog instead. 'You see, she wants to play. She just doesn't quite know how to do it.' At this point Billy begins humping another dog. I suggest this might be too on the nose to include in the interview. 'A little bit,' he concedes. 'You can kind of see the lead for your piece taking shape right now in front of us. I'll write your lead for you: 'You can tell Anthony Weiner's dog has been around him for a while.' ' We wrap up the subject of dating. 'Put it this way: it's fraught. But I don't date much.' Does he stand any chance of winning, though? Weiner thinks his opponents in the upcoming council election are tame. 'In today's world, you've got these other people that I'm running against [who] cut their teeth in a very different time, where it's: how do you get this? How do you not offend this group?' He talks about homelessness. 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We leave the dog park and a man walks towards us holding a camera. 'You've got some nerve running for office after sending that dick!' Weiner is unfazed. 'Say, one of these Trump motherf***ers!' Most of what is shouted over the next three minutes is even more unprintable than that. 'You kiss your mom with that mouth?' Weiner asks him, repeatedly shouting, 'Trump motherf***er, go home!' and, 'Another Trump motherf***er!' to those in the park who are, by this point, beginning to turn their heads. The man repeats the usual charges. 'Your fault that Trump got elected in the first place, motherf***er!' he rages. 'They used your sex crime to sink Hillary!' The episode feels reminiscent of the 2016 fly-on-the-wall documentary, Weiner, which introduced me and countless others to Weiner's brusque style while his mayoral campaign (and then marriage too) combusted in real time, its whole extraordinary disintegration captured on camera. This time, a number of young men rally to him. 'Mr Weiner,' one says. 'Don't even talk to him. He's worthless.' These aren't the only men we bump into on our walk who are supportive of Weiner — and they are largely men. But it's difficult to tell if he stands a chance in the council election. 'It's too small a district to really poll,' he says. But he knows his pitch well. 'I just think that my gift is the absence of really giving a shit about whether I might offend someone… And it sounds to people like, oh, I'm doing something different. 'No, what I'm really doing is just practising the only form of politics I know how to do now. Is it going to fit well with this moment? Does it fit well with this electorate? Does it fit well with my scandal? Who the f*** knows. But I don't know any other way to do it. I don't know any other way to do it.'
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Israel's ambassador to the UK takes aim at Labour's half-hearted backing for her war-torn nation as it takes on Iran
In Israel, where warnings of attacks from enemy nations are rampant, being woken at 6am by a loud air raid alarm is all-too common. But when the same sound pierced the air two hours later, Tzipi Hotovely, Israel's first female ambassador to Britain, realised this warning was more serious than usual. The third time it rang out in central Israel, where she was staying with her in-laws, she turned to her husband as they hurried to the family bomb shelter and said: 'This is war.' Chillingly, she was right. It was the morning of October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists stormed through a security fence sealing Israel from Gaza and militants flew in firing guns from paragliders. That day – the worst intelligence failure in the country's history – was marked by carnage and barbarity on an unprecedented scale. In their murderous rampage, Hamas killed 1,189 people and wounded 7,500 - leaving many with life-changing injuries. The terrorists raped and sexually abused hundreds of women and young girls. To this day 53 hostages are still in captivity, and the ambassador fears only 20 may still be alive. Some of Tzipi Hotovely's loved ones were among the victims. 'We lost members of our extended family. We lost friends,' she says of that horrendous day. The war that began that morning is now reaching a new peak with Israel's relentless bombardment of Iran. She says that her parents, who remain in Israel, have been caught in the crossfires of Tehran's retaliatory strikes in the past week. Three or more times every night, they have been moving into the bomb shelter in the basement. Not long before we speak, a ballistic missile landed close to her parents' home. Despite the civilian death toll on both sides, the straight-talking ambassador is in no doubt about the justification of waging war on Iran. At 75 times the size of Israel, Iran has sponsored a proxy network of terror groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis in Yemen to fuel conflict against the Jewish state. 'We have given Iran 20 years to try to make diplomacy work but they are more interested in blowing up the negotiating table than sitting next to it,' she tells me. 'Iran is 1,500 kilometres (900 miles) from Israel but it has circled us with its proxies. We are vulnerable. We are a small country the same size as Wales. 'Iran was on the threshold of making nuclear weapons and we had to stop it. This is not just our war. Iran is Britain's enemy. It is America's war too.' The ambassador, who has been in Britain since 2020 when Boris Johnson was prime minister, lavishes praise on Britain's intelligence agencies MI5 and MI6 for their help: 'They are brilliant.' But, while she liked Johnson as PM, she struggles to conceal her disappointment – even anger – with Sir Keir Starmer and his bumbling Foreign Secretary David Lammy, whose gaffes have tried the patience of even the most loyal Labour MPs. As a diplomat, she chooses her words carefully. 'We have gaps with the British Government,' she tells me. Talk about an under-statement. It is more like yawning chasms in terms of support than gaps. Take the decision of the Starmer Government in September to restrict arms sales to Israel, which is the only democracy in the Middle East. 'It was political. In Jerusalem, people were astonished by the arms embargo. It is just so contradictory. When you are fighting the right war, you expect your allies to support you,' Hotovely tells me. Then there was the unexpected move by the Government last week to impose sanctions on two Israeli government ministers over their hardline stance on the Gaza war. The ambassador says: 'It was a very bad decision, morally wrong. You put sanctions on your enemy not your friend.' To underline this, she points to former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who was denounced by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission in 2020 for presiding over 'a culture within the party which, at best, did not do enough to prevent anti-Semitism and, at worst, could be seen to accept it'. She adds: 'Jeremy Corbyn could have been prime minister of Britain. He was anti-Semitic. 'He had supported a terrorist organisation. But we never sanctioned him or the Labour Party. We respect the British people. We can criticise their leaders but we don't sanction them.' As for David Lammy, she is even more circumspect when I ask if she thinks he is remotely up to the job of being Britain's diplomat-in-chief on the world stage. Lammy was widely criticised after saying he accepted the International Criminal Court's decision to issue an arrest warrant for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes. 'It was a miserable decision,' says Hotovely. 'The ICC is a biased political organisation, which is why US President Donald Trump has imposed sanctions on it. The British Government was used as a political tool by the court.' The ambassador is keenly aware that Labour's support from the Muslim community collapsed at the General Election in July last year. In the 21 seats where more than 30 per cent of the population is Muslim, Labour's share dropped from an average 65 per cent in 2019 to 36 per cent. Four Independent Muslim candidates won in previously safe Labour seats, and the situation in Gaza was a hot election issue. Hotovely, 46, is trenchant in her criticism. 'There is no doubt that the Muslim vote is a crucial part of Labour Party politics in Britain,' she declares. 'No one can deny it. It is clear to me. Many decisions about Israel are made [in Britain] according to domestic politics. It is a fact.' It was when she was just 26 that Hotovely first came to the attention of Netanyahu, who was then leader of the opposition. By this stage, she was a qualified lawyer who had done two years of national service and was working as a political commentator on TV. Netanyahu spotted her and, seeing her talent, made contact. 'I was called into his office. His first statement to me was, 'This is 1938. Iran is the equivalent to Nazi Germany'. That was his dramatic opening. It wasn't 'welcome to my office' or 'nice to see you'. That was 20 years ago. He was right then and he's right now.' Many now consider her to be Netanyahu's protege. Elected as an MP when she was 30, she is a small part of political history. 'Before I was in parliament, all the women MPs had grown-up children,' she says. 'I got married when I was an MP and had babies when I was an MP. I turned my parliamentary office into a nursery. 'I brought a nanny into the office. All my meetings were outside the office. Five times a day I returned to it to breastfeed my baby.' Her three daughters Maayan, 11, Eliraz, nine, and Noa, seven, love her being an ambassador. 'My youngest says, 'When I grow up, Mummy, I want to be the ambassador'. I never got that compliment when I was a politician.' In parliament she held eight ministerial posts – more than any other woman in Israeli politics with the exception of Golda Meir who was Israel's first and only woman prime minister from 1969 to 1974. Was Golda Meir her political hero? 'Absolutely not. It is Margaret Thatcher. She was a remarkable woman, a brave politician. Mrs Thatcher saved the British economy and her free-market thinking inspired Israel. 'In Britain I have seen that Winston Churchill is remembered everywhere. Quite right. But Mrs Thatcher is not – which means you need a place for people to learn about her.' In Israel, Hotovely was often demonised by her opponents for being hard-Right and a religious zealot. She is unmoved by the criticism. 'In politics if, like Mrs Thatcher, you make great changes you will never be loved. I am very opinionated. If you want to be loved, find another profession than politics.' It was Netanyahu who persuaded her to take up the ambassador role. She prepared for it by binge-watching the 1980s political satire Yes Minister, a favourite of Margaret Thatcher. The star of the TV series was the civil servant Sir Humphrey Appleby, played by the late Nigel Hawthorne. 'I loved Sir Humphrey and it gave me a great insight into the British civil service,' she says with a loud laugh. 'I have met some really interesting British diplomats.' When she arrived in Britain, she coined a nickname for her husband Or Alon, a lawyer she married in 2013 with a staggering 2,500 guests. 'I'd call him Mr Ambassador. Every time we went to a royal event, or an official reception, people would come up to him and say: 'Mr Ambassador'. They never thought it could be me.' She has met the King and says her proudest moment was presenting her credentials as the new ambassador to the late Queen. 'I am so proud and so happy I talked to her, even though it was on Zoom because of lockdown. She said to me, 'You have too many elections in your country'.' Indeed, when Netanyahu was elected again in October 2022, it was the fifth election in Israel in four years. While Hotovely loves Britain – the Scottish Highlands and Cornwall are her favourite places – she says she will not miss 'all those dark nights in your winter'. But she enjoys the dry British sense of humour and says 'the Jewish school my children go to is wonderful. The discipline. The manners'. Yet to this day she is shocked by the anti-Semitism she has experienced in Britain. She believes it is rampant in many universities. When she addressed the London School of Economics in 2021, she needed an armed escort off the premises. 'I did not think in post-war Europe I would experience these levels of hate. I am very involved with the Jewish community here and they no longer feel safe. They don't think they can wear symbols of their Jewishness on their clothes.' By tradition, many Jewish families place a mezuzah, a small symbol of their Jewish faith, on their front door frame. 'But since October 7 most now have brought those symbols into the house, which is very sad.' Since the war with Gaza, she has become one of the most closely guarded women in Britain. 'I cannot even go to the synagogue because of the security so I pray at home. The security guys are all British. They have been wonderful to me and my family.' Every Saturday there is a huge march, involving thousands of pro-Palestine protesters, into central London. There has been repeated criticism of the police for standing by and ignoring anti-Semitic chants and even banners proclaiming support for Hamas. 'There is something badly wrong if a major part of the Jewish community feels they are excluded by the marches from going into central London. I have good relationships with successive home secretaries who say fighting anti-Semitism is an important part of their work. 'But when those marches, with their anti-Jewish slogans go past Big Ben, they are seen by Jewish people on TV all around the world. It sends out a terrible message.' The ambassador has an interesting suggestion. 'Words matter. I think the phrase anti-Semitism is now anachronistic. It does not come across as what it really is – Jewish hatred or racism against Jews. Perhaps we should change the description to reflect that. Education is a key factor.' In the ambassador's view, this education could start with the BBC, which still refuses to call Hamas a terrorist organisation. The corporation maintains that would mean it was taking a side. 'Hamas is an internationally recognised terrorist organisation,' she counters. 'Look what they did on October 7. Hideous terrorist brutality. I don't understand the BBC's position which I think damages its reputation worldwide. 'Hamas use children as human shields. They looted the food aid that we provided. They don't care about their own people but the BBC will not criticise them.' In the current febrile atmosphere, with President Trump upping the anti-Iran rhetoric, it is significant that Starmer has been more circumspect. Is he unwilling to upset the Muslim community or the vocal anti-Israel lobby in his own party? 'The ambassador returns to diplomatic-speak. 'Britain is an important ally. We have shared valuable intelligence with your MI5 and MI6.' No word, however, on Starmer. Later this year, she will go back to Israel because it is the end of her five-year posting. She is widely expected to return to parliament at the election expected next year. She is a serious contender to replace Netanyahu, 75, who has now served as PM for 17 years. 'I think I am tough but I am very human and I have cried so much since the war started. I cry over the devastating loss of life,' she tells me. 'But I am proud of my country. I will be proud to serve my country in whatever way I can. I have been proud to serve as ambassador to your great country.'
