ISIS: Pilot’s burning is lesson for countries attacking our cities

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—In a sermon in Mosul on Friday Islamic State (ISIS) preacher Abu Saad al-Ansari said that the burning of the Jordanian pilot last week was a response to attacks against the group in Syria and Iraq.

“It was a lesson to any state or government that conducts airstrikes against the Islamic State,” said al-Ansari in his sermon at Muhammad Rasulullah mosque in Mosul.

“We will not stay silent to any country or individual who provokes the Islamic State with airstrikes and attacks our cities,” said the ISIS preacher to a gathering of around 300 attendants at the mosque, said Rudaw reporter inside the city.

Al-Ansari said that the Jordanian pilot—Mouath al-Kasasebeh who was burnt alive last week—was a traitor who had collaborated “with the infidels on killing Muslims,”

“Therefore he received the same punishment his hands had caused,” he said.

The Jordanian air force conducted several airstrikes against ISIS positions in Syria on Friday in what it called a revenge for the killing of al-Kasasebeh.

Al-Ansari defied Iraqi and coalition attacks on the city of Mosul, saying, “Mosul will remain steadfast against the infidel forces despite their airstrikes,”

The ISIS preacher also said that their militants “will respond to any attacks from the Peshmerga,” while threatening the Iraqi forces that any pilot that may fall in the hands of the Islamic State will have the same fate of the Jordanian pilot.