CAIRO (Reuters) - A video released by the Islamic State militant group on Tuesday purported to show captive Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasaesbeh being burnt alive.
Reuters could not immediately confirm the video, which showed a man resembling the captive pilot standing in a black cage before being set ablaze. Kasaesbeh has been in Islamic State captivity since his plane crashed over Syria in December.
The head of the Jordanian armed forces told his family he had been killed, a member of the family told Reuters.
Kasaesbeh was captured by Islamic State insurgents after his plane crashed over Syria while on a bombing mission against the insurgents.
In the video, the burned man wore orange clothes similar to those worn by other foreign Islamic State captives who have been killed since a U.S.-led coalition started bombing the militants in July.
Islamic State has released videos showing the beheadings of several Western hostages and said that it has killed two Japanese captives.
The ultra-radical militants have come under increased military pressure from air strikes and by Kurdish and Iraqi troops pushing to reverse Islamic State's territorial gains in Iraq and Syria.
(Reporting by Omar Fahmy in Cairo and Oliver Holmes in Beirut; Editing by Mark Heinrich)