Cage holding pilot set alight
ISLAMIC STATE (Isis) militants burned a captured Jordanian pilot to death in a cage, according to a purported video of the violence released yesterday. The kingdom, which had vowed a swift and lethal response, reacted by executing two al Qaeda prisoners by hanging.
The pilot’s death sparked outrage and anti-Isis demonstrations in Jordan. The video emerged after a week-long drama over a possible prisoner exchange for a female al Qaeda operative imprisoned in Jordan. She was one of the two executed.
The Jordanian military confirmed the death of 26-year-old Lieutenant Muath Al-Kaseasbeh, who was captured by the extremists in December when his F-16 crashed while he was flying a mission as part of the United States-led air campaign against Isis.
In Washington, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and President Barack Obama vowed in a hastily arranged White House meeting not to let up against Isis. Jordan, a staunch Western ally, is a member of the coalition fighting Isis.
In a first response to the killing of the pilot, Jordan executed Sajida al-Rishawi and Ziad alKarbouly, two Iraqis linked to al Qaeda, government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani said.
Another official said they were executed by hanging.
Over the past week Jordan had offered to trade al-Rishawi, a failed suicide bomber, for the pilot, but froze any swap after failing to receive any proof that the pilot was still alive. Jordanian television said he was killed as long ago as January 3.
Al-Rishawi had been sentenced to death for her 2005 role in a triple hotel bombing that killed 60 people in Amman and was orchestrated by al Qaeda in Iraq, the predecessor of Isis.
Al-Karbouly was sent to death row in 2008 for plotting terror attacks on Jordanians in Iraq.
Al-Kaseasbeh had fallen into the hands of the militants when his aircraft crashed near Raqqa, Syria, the de facto capital of the group’s self-styled caliphate.
In the 20-minute video purportedly showing his killing, he displayed signs of having been beaten, including a black eye.
‘Damn you . . . We will avenge, we will avenge our son’s blood.’
Toward the end of the clip, he is shown wearing an orange jumpsuit. He stands in an outdoor cage as a masked militant ignites a line of fuel leading to it.
The video, which threatened other purported Jordanian pilots by name, was released on militant websites and bore the logo of the extremist group’s al Furqan media service.
The killing of the 26-year-old airman appeared aimed at pressuring the government of Jordan to leave the coalition.
Jordan’s role in a bombing campaign targeting Muslims is not popular in Jordan. However, some said the extremists’ brutal killing of a fellow Muslim could galvanise resentment against them among fellow Sunni Muslims in the region.
At their White House meeting, the Jordanian monarch and Obama affirmed that ‘‘the vile murder of this brave Jordanian will only serve to steel the international community’s resolve to destroy Isil’’, said White House spokesman Alistair Baskey, using an alternate acronym for Isis.
Abdullah, who was on a previously scheduled trip to Washington, made no remarks to reporters as he and Obama sat side by side in the Oval Office.
Abdullah has portrayed the campaign against the extremists as a battle over values. In a speech on Tuesday night on Jordanian state television, he urged his countrymen to unite ‘‘and show the real values of Jordanians in the face of these hardships’’.
The official Petra news agency said he would be cutting short his Washington trip to return to Jordan.
Army spokesman Mamdouh alAmeri said the country would strike back hard. ‘‘Our punishment and revenge will be as huge as the loss of the Jordanians,’’ he said.
Jordan faces increasing threats from the militants. Jordan borders areas of Isis’ self-declared caliph- ate in Syria and Iraq, while there have been signs of greater support for the group’s militant ideas among Jordan’s young and poor.
The pilot’s father, Safi Yousef al-Kaseasbeh, was attending a tribal meeting in Amman when news of the video surfaced, and he was seen being led from the session. Other men were seen outside, overcome with emotion.
After word spread that the pilot had been killed, dozens of people chanting slogans against Isis marched toward the royal palace to express their anger.
Waving a Jordanian flag, they chanted, ‘‘Damn you, Daesh!’’ – using the Arabic acronym of the group – and ‘‘We will avenge, we will avenge our son’s blood’’.
Protesters marched in the pilot’s home village of Ai and set a local government office on fire.
Al-Kaseasbeh is from a tribal area in southern Jordan’s Karak district.
The tribes are considered a mainstay of support for the monarchy, but the pilot’s capture strained that relationship. Members of his family repeatedly accused the government of botching efforts to win his release and also criticised Jordan’s participation in the anti-Isis alliance.
David L. Phillips, a former State Department adviser on the Middle East, said he believed the pilot’s killing could backfire, antagonising Sunnis against the extremists, including Sunni tribes in Iraq.