Syrian Kurdish fighters in the battleground town of Kobani commemorated Jordanian pilot Maaz al-Kassasbeh as a "martyr" after his brutal execution by their ’jihadist’ foes, an activist said Wednesday.

Syrian Kurdish fighters in the battleground town of Kobani commemorated Jordanian pilot Maaz al-Kassasbeh as a "martyr" after his brutal execution by their 'jihadist' foes, an activist said Wednesday.

"After the killing of Maaz was announced, troops from the People's Protection Units (YPG) in Kobani and in liberated villages nearby gathered to mourn the pilot's death, and to hold a minute of silence in his honor," Mustafa Ebdi told AFP.

"He is one of Kobani's martyrs -- everyone is proud of him," Ebdi said, referring to the slain pilot's participation in the US-led air campaign in Syria, which helped Kurdish fighters liberate the town from ISIL last week.

The YPG's political arm, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), vowed to avenge ISIL's killing of Kassasbeh and Japanese fellow captives Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa.

The recapture of Kobani "is just the beginning of the defeat of those monsters, so that humanity can be free from them forever", it said.