A reign of terror by a leaderless lynch mob

UNTIL this week the pinnacle of Islamic State barbarity was deemed to be the public humiliation and decapitation of foreign hostages.

Now that has been trumped by public immolation – and Isis may in this ruthless action have overreached itself, demonstrating to the world that it is no longer a disciplined fighting force but a leaderless lynch mob.

Its message to the world: the so- called caliphate is a revolution out of control.

There has been a strategic aim to most of the foreign killings.

Above all, it wants to use YouTube to spread popular opposition among coalition members to the war against Isis. It is a fragile coalition, often inhibited by tensions between the Arab participants. And the real vulnerability is in democratic states. Isis has been recruiting in Jordan.

A victory for the jihadists would be to stir popular unrest against the government. That is one reason why King Abdullah broke off his visit to the United States yesterday to return home.

Yet first indications are that the dreadful murder of the Jordanian fighter pilot has broadened and hardened the consensus for making war on the jihadists.

Even before the killing the mood was that the struggle against Isis was best fought in Iraq and Syria.

Now there will be a rush of Jordanian pilots volunteering to take on air strikes. There will be even tougher measures taken against radical preachers.

Jordan is not cowed by this act, it is angry.

What the killings of the past week illustrate is that Isis is changing as an organisation. Hostage-taking used to be a source of income.

Now hostages are taken for the pure perverse satisfaction of public murder. No-one can seriously believe that Isis was ready to barter its Japanese hostages for $200 million.

Rather, it was an act of provocation intended to make pacifist Japanese pressure their government for a change in policy.

Isis, in other words, has become less of an organised crime gang – which demands a measure of discipline – and more of a force that legitimises itself through escalating violence.

The caliphate has become a reign of terror. Sooner rather than later that will have an impact on jihadi recruitment.

So far, foreign jihadis have been given the illusion of privilege. Increasingly, as Isis has to become even more mobile, it will be ruled internally by fear. Deserters are already shot.

Day by day, the spurious romance of Isis evaporates. So, too, does the sense of Isis being a rational actor.

Jordan was right to be suspicious about the wellbeing of its fighter pilot.

The collapse of the old criminal protocol, the careful negotiation procedures and the handover, suggests the breakdown of local leadership.