Jordan executes two to avenge pilot’s death
Grisly Islamic State video appeared to show man being burned to death in a cage
AMMAN, JORDAN— A Jordanian government spokesman says Jordan has executed two prisoners, including a would-be female suicide bomber from Al Qaeda.
The executions at dawn Wednesday came just hours after Islamic State militants released a video that purportedly showed a captured Jordanian fighter pilot being burned alive in a cage.
Jordan vowed a swift and lethal response. Government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani said that two prisoners, Sajida al-Rishawi and Ziad al-Karbouli, were executed early Wednesday.
Al-Rishawi has been on death row for her role in a triple hotel bombing in the Jordanian capital Amman in 2005 that killed dozens.
There are beheading videos, photos are posted online of men being pushed off buildings if they are gay, and women accused of adultery are stoned to death on camera.
But on Tuesday, the Islamic State appears to have added to their macabre collection of snuff films with the execution of a Jordanian pilot by burning him alive.
Jordanian fighter pilot Lt. Muath al-Kaseabeh is seen inside a cage on the video with what appears to be flammable liquid on his clothes and is lit on fire, according to the Washington-based SITE Intelligence Group.
On social media, followers of the Islamic State praised the killing of al-Kaseabeh.
The 26-year-old pilot was captured on Dec. 24 after his F-16 fighter jet crashed in northern Syria.
The video where he is killed also reportedly shows him describing the mission he was due to carry out before he crashed and footage of civilians being pulled from the debris of an airstrike.
The Islamic State had reportedly set a deadline of Jan. 28 saying he would be killed if Jordan did not surrender al-Rishawi.