Jordan executes two militants in 'earth-shattering' response to pilot murder

Security source says executions were carried out at Swaqa prison south of the capital Amman


Afp February 04, 2015
A security source said the executions were carried out at Swaqa prison south of the capital Amman. PHOTO: REUTERS

AMMAN: Jordan executed two death-row militants at dawn on Wednesday after vowing an "earth-shattering" response to avenge the burning alive of one of its fighter pilots by the Islamic State (IS) group.

Would-be Iraqi femall Qaeda member Ziad al-Karboli were hanged at 4:00 am local time, government spokesperson 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.



 A general view shows security forces in front of Swaqa prison near Amman. PHOTO: REUTERS

Jordan had promised to begin executing militants on death row at daybreak in response to the murder of Maaz al-Kassasbeh, who was captured by IS when his plane went down in Syria in December.

Rishawi, 44, was condemned to death for her participation in deadly attacks in Amman in 2005 and IS had offered to spare Kassasbeh's life and free a Japanese hostage - who was later beheaded - if she were released.

Karboli 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 Kassasbeh, 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 group.

Jordan, a crucial ally of Washington in the Middle East, is one of five Arab countries that has joined a US-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, recorded a televised address to his shocked and outraged nation.

The king, once in the military himself, described Kassasbeh as a hero and vowed to take the battle to IS.

The army and government vowed to avenge the pilot's murder, with Momani saying: "Jordan's response will be earth-shattering.

"Whoever doubted the unity of the Jordanian people, we will prove them wrong," he said.

US President Barack Obama, who hosted Abdullah in a hastily organised Oval Office meeting, led international condemnation of the murder, decrying the "cowardice and depravity" of IS.

"The president and King Abdullah reaffirmed that the vile murder of this brave Jordanian will only serve to steel the international community's resolve to destroy ISIL," a National Security Council spokesperson said after the pair met, using an alternative name for IS.

The Obama administration had earlier reaffirmed its intention to give Jordan $3 billion in security aid over the next three years.

Kassasbeh was captured in December when his jet crashed over northern Syria on a mission that was part of the coalition air campaign against the militants.

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.

British Prime Minister David Cameron called the murder "sickening" while UN chief Ban Ki-moon labelled it an "appalling act".

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe condemned it as "unforgivable".

The highly choreographed 22-minute video shows Kassasbeh 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 Kassasbeh 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 militant uses a torch to light a trail of flame that runs to the cage and burns him alive.



RELATED: IS claims to have burned Jordanian pilot alive



The video also offered rewards for the killing of other "crusader" pilots.

IS had previously beheaded two US journalists, an American aid worker and two British aid workers in similar highly choreographed videos.

Shiraz Maher, from the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King's College London, described the footage as "simply the most horrific, disgusting thing I have seen from Islamic State in the last two years".

"They clearly want to make a real point. This is the first individual whom they have captured who has been directly involved with the Western coalition in fighting IS. It is different from the aid workers... This is an act of belligerence."

"Every time you think they cannot commit anything worse - they open up another trapdoor."

The Islamic State group last year declared an Islamic "caliphate" as it rampaged across Iraq and Syria in a brutal offensive of executions and forced religious conversions.

Kassasbeh's plane was the first loss of an aircraft since the US-led coalition launched strikes against IS last year.

US Central Command said that the group still had the ability "to conduct small-scale operations" despite months of air strikes.
But, it said, "their capacity to do so is degraded and their momentum is stalling."



Activists protest in Amman, after the release of a video purportedly showing Islamic State captive Jordanian pilot Mouath al-Kasaesbeh being burnt alive .PHOTO: REUTERS

   

COMMENTS (15)

John Marsh | 9 years ago | Reply

@US CENTCOM: The hypocritical US calls the ISIS barbaric? I suppose Killing hundreds of thousands in the Nuclear fires holocaust meted out to two Japanese cities was not Barbaric or the fire bombing of Tokyo in the Doolittle raids was really civilized or the burning to death of millions of Germans in the fire bombing of the one hundred and sixty nine towns and cities was a humanitarian effort by the American Air Force ISIS Barbaric? ISIS cannot hold a candle to the barbarity of the USA from the American Indian wars to the present day!

woody | 9 years ago | Reply

@ajeet: Physical courage and high tech weapons aren't what's going to defeat the scourge of religion extremism -- moral courage is overlooked/understated and what's in short demand these days.

VIEW MORE COMMENTS
Replying to X

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.

For more information, please see our Comments FAQ