Jordan Will Have Revenge For Murdered Pilot

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It's slickly produced with iconography and graphics fitting for a thriller or spy movie.

It even uses 'flashbacks' as the condemned man looks into the sky and contemplates just how justified his punishment is going to be compared to the 'crimes' he has committed.

The latest murder video from the death cult that calls itself Islamic State is revealing not for the visible 'power' of the movement but for its weakness.

Indeed the whole saga of the Japanese hostages and murder of flight lieutenant Mu'ath Al Kassasbeh begins to reveal a picture of an organisation that is losing its grip.

It has already abandoned Kobani after losing 1,200 men. It has been driven from some key towns and villages in the east of Iraq, and now it would appear to be incoherent in its kidnap policy.

Last year it made about £30m ($45m) from negotiating the release of foreigners.

It murdered Britons and Americans on camera because the shocking snuff movies of their deaths generated a level of publicity that outweighed the profits it might have raised from desperate families.

Throughout the talks aimed at swapping Sajida al Rishawi, a failed suicide bomber on death row in Amman, IS was unable to provide proof that Flt Lt Kassasbeh was alive.

Activists in Raqqa said on 8 January that they believed he had been killed.

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Gallery: Tension Mounts Over IS Hostages' Plight

Japanese television networks reveal the plight of hostage Kenji Goto, whose release in exchange for freedom for a jailed female jihadist is being negotiated through the Jordanian capital Amman

Supporters of Mr Goto take part in a vigil outside Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Tokyo office

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A Japanese journalist at the protest headquarters in Amman for the family of pilot Muath al Kasaesbeh, who has been held hostage by IS since December

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The father of the missing pilot has led the campaign for his son's release

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Public protest is increasing in Jordan over the pilot's fate, with pressure growing on King Abdullah, as supporters continue to revere his father King Hussein

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During the same period, when negotiating over a $200m ransom for the two Japanese citizens, the usual videos were replaced with print-outs of photos of the murder of Haruna Yukawa who was killed first.

His friend Kenji Goto was beheaded on video - but not in the open location that previous crimes had been committed.

One could over-interpret such clues, it is true. But so-called IS appears to be having to keep its hostages on the move, rush out its demands, and has resorted to a form of murder that could galvanise support against them in the very communities they most need it.

The aim of the latest killing is to force a wedge between King Abdullah II of Jordan and the Bedouin tribes who traditionally support him.

There have been small elements within them, especially in the south, that have drifted towards the ideology of Salafism, the Islamo-fascist creed of al Qaeda and IS.

Some Jordanians are dismayed at their country's involvement in fighting IS in Syria and Iraq.

The hostage killers want these people to blame their kind for his death.

But this is a gamble. Bedouin tribes have already been fighting IS in Syria. And now the large Kasasbeh clans are locked in a blood feud.

As Jordan's army has already sworn - it will have revenge.

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Tampolan Telak