Jordan hangs jihadists after IS burns alive pilot
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Jordan executed two death-row jihadists, including an Iraqi woman militant, yesterday after vowing to avenge the burning alive of one of its fighter pilots by the Islamic State group.
Would-be Iraqi female suicide bomber Sajida al-Rishawi and Iraqi al-Qaida member Ziad al-Karbouly were hanged at 4am (local time), government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani said.
A security source said the executions were carried out at Swaqa prison south of the capital Amman in the presence of an Islamic legal official.
Jordan had promised to begin executing Islamic extremists on death row at daybreak in response to the murder of Muath al-Kasaesbeh, who was captured by IS when his plane went down in Syria in December.
Rishawi, 44, was sentenced to death for her participation in deadly attacks in Amman in 2005. IS had offered to spare Kasaesbeh’s life and free a Japanese hostage — who was later beheaded — if she were released.
Karbouly was sentenced to death in 2007 on terrorism charges, including the killing of a Jordanian in Iraq.
Jordan had on Tuesday vowed to avenge the killing of Kasaesbeh, hours after a harrowing video emerged online purporting to show the caged 26-year-old F-16 fighter pilot engulfed in flames.
The video — the most brutal yet in a series of gruesome recorded killings of hostages by IS — prompted global revulsion and vows of continued international efforts to combat the Sunni Muslim extremist group.
The killing sparked outrage in Jordan and the region and demonstrations in Amman and the city of Karak, the home of Kasaesbeh’s influential tribe.
Jordan, a crucial ally of Washington in the Middle East, is one of several Arab countries that has joined a United States-led coalition of countries carrying out air strikes against IS in Syria and Iraq.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who was visiting Washington as the video came to light, described Kasaesbeh as a hero and vowed to take the battle to IS.
‘Earth-shattering’
The army and government promised to avenge the pilot’s murder, with Momani saying: “Jordan’s response will be earth-shattering.”
US President Barack Obama, who hosted Abdullah in a hastily organized Oval Office meeting, led international condemnation of the murder, decrying the “cowardice and depravity” of IS.
Kasaesbeh was captured in December when his jet crashed over northern Syria on a mission that was part of the coalition air campaign against the jihadists.
Jordanian state television suggested he was killed on January 3, before IS offered to spare his life and free Japanese journalist Kenji Goto in return for Rishawi’s release.
The highly choreographed 22-minute video released on Tuesday shows Kasaesbeh at a table recounting coalition operations against IS, with flags from the various Western and Arab countries in the alliance projected in the background.
It then shows Kasaesbeh dressed in an orange jumpsuit and surrounded by armed and masked IS fighters in camouflage.
It cuts to him standing inside a cage and apparently soaked in petrol before a masked jihadist lights a trail of flame that runs to the cage and burns him alive.
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