ISLAMIC STATE ESCALATION
Jihadists executed in Jordan.
AMMAN, Jordan — A Jordanian government spokesman says Jordan has executed two prisoners, including a wouldbe female suicide bomber from al-Qaida.
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. Government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani said that two prisoners, Sajida al-Rishawi and Ziad al-Karbouli, were executed early Wednesday.
Al-Rishawi had been on death row for her role in a triple hotel bombing in the Jordanian capital Amman in 2005 that killed dozens.
Officials reacted furiously after pictures were posted of pilot Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh being burned alive, which went beyond anything yet seen in Islamic State’s execution videos. They were particularly angry because the method of death seemed to confirm reports he had been killed several weeks ago. There had been rumours in early January that he had been burned, and officials said Tuesday they now believed he died on Jan 3.
That made a mockery of Islamic State’s demands last week that the failed bomber, al-Rishawi, be released in return for al-Kaseasbeh’s safety, as well as the release of Japanese journalist Kenji Goto. That deal fell through after the jihadists were unable to provide Jordan with proof the pilot was alive. Goto’s killing was confirmed Saturday.
“The military forces announce that the hero pilot, Muath al-Kaseasbeh, has fallen as a martyr, and ask God to accept him with the martyrs,” Gen. Mamdouh al-Ameri, the Jordanian military spokesman, said after the pictures were circulated by jihadist social media forums. “While the military forces mourn the martyr, they emphasize his blood will not be shed in vain. Our punishment and revenge will be as huge as the loss of the Jordanians.”
“The sentence of death pending on Iraqi Sajida al-Rishawi will be carried out at dawn,” a security official said. Officials said four other jihadists also would have their death sentences implemented immediately. In the video, al-Kaseasbeh is seen being led into in a cage. As he appears to pray, one jihadist steps forward to light the fuse stretching out across the ground.
King Abdullah II of Jordan cut short a visit to Washington with his foreign minister, Nasser Judeh, to return to Amman.
U.S. President Barack Obama said the video was “just one more indication of the viciousness and barbarity of this organization. This organization is only interested in death and destruction.”
British Prime Minister David Cameron said: “Muath al-Kaseasbeh’s sickening murder will only strengthen our resolve to defeat (Islamic State). ”