On November 29, the ISIS media agency al-Hayat released a 58-minuate long propaganda video named “Flames of War II”. The video shows ISIS terrorists burning a pilot of the Syrian Arab Air Force (SyAAF) to death after he was chained at the neck.
The SyAAF pilot was identified as Major Azzam Eid, from the city of Salamiyah located in the eastern Hama countryside. Major Eid’s warplane, a Soviet-made MiG-23BN, crashed near Tall al-Dakwah in the eastern Qalamun region on April 22, 2016. Back then, the ISIS-linked news agency Amaq claimed that Major Eid’s warplane was shot down by ISIS fighters and released a video that shows him being captured by ISIS fighters.
Al-Hayat’s propaganda video also shows ISIS fighters executing 13 soldiers of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and a video of ISIS attack on a column of the Egyptian Army in northern Sinai on September 14. The propaganda video also included footage of many old ISIS attacks in Syria, Egypt and Iraq.
Major Eid was not the first pilot burned alive by ISIS. On February 3, 2015, the ISIS media agency al-Furqan released a propaganda video showing ISIS terrorists burning Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasasbeh to death. Al-Ksasbeh was captured by ISIS fighters after his warplane crashed near the city of Raqqa on December 24, 2014.
Experts believe that the new propaganda release is a desperate attempt by ISIS to raise the low morale of its supporters, epically after the last ISIS defeats in Syria, Iraq and Egypt. Despite the collapse of ISIS’ self-proclaimed Caliphate in Syria and Iraq, the terrorist group’s media branch is still able to produce high-quality propaganda.