Jordan executes two prisoners after IS group kills pilot
Latest update : 2015-02-04
Jordan executed two convicted al Qaeda terrorists, including failed suicide bomber Sajida al-Rishawi, early Wednesday following the killing of one of its air force pilots by Islamic State (IS) militants.
The executions at dawn came just hours after the Islamic State group released a video that purportedly showed captured Jordanian fighter pilot Muath al-Kasaesbeh being burned alive in a cage.
Government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani said that two prisoners, 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.
The IS group had offered to trade Kasaesbeh, who was taken hostage by IS group militants in Syria in December when his Jordanian F-16 crashed near Raqqa, for Rishawi, but Jordan had insisted it would first need proof that the pilot was still alive.
Shortly after details of the pilot’s death emerged on Tuesday, however, Jordan’s state broadcaster announced that Kasaesbeh was killed on January 3 – raising questions over whether any of the hostage negotiations had ever been sincere.
Kasaesbeh was the first airman participating in the US-led bombing raids against the IS group (also known as ISIS or ISIL) to be captured.
Jordan then vowed to deliver a “strong, earth-shaking and decisive” response to avenge the pilot’s murder.
“While the military forces mourn the martyr, they emphasise his blood will not be shed in vain. Our punishment and revenge will be as huge as the loss of the Jordanians,” Jordanian army spokesman Mamdouh al-Ameri said in a statement read on state TV.
The killing drew worldwide condemnation, including from President Barack Obama and the UN Security Council.
It appeared aimed at pressuring the government of Jordan – a close US ally – to leave the coalition that has carried out months of airstrikes targeting Islamic State positions in Syria and Iraq. But the extremists’ brutality against a fellow Muslim could backfire and galvanise other Sunni Muslims in the region against them.
King Abdullah II has portrayed the campaign against the extremists as a battle over values.
Mood changes on the streets of Amman
The two death-row convicts, both Iraqi nationals, were executed at around 4am local time at Swaqa prison south of Amman, according to Jordanian authorities.
Failed al Qaeda suicide bomber Rishawi shot into the international spotlight last month when the IS group had sought her release as part of a deal to free captive Japanese journalist Kenji Goto. A video that appeared to show Goto's dead body was put online four days ago.
Karbouli, the second executed prisoner, was an aide to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born leader of al Qaeda in Iraq who was killed in a June 2006 US bombing in Iraq. Karbouli had a strategic position in the militant Islamist group as an aide to Zarqawi, who is believed to have been a mentor to IS group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The double executions followed days of protests outside the Royal Court in Amman, where demonstrators gathered to demand that King Abdullah do more to secure the captured Jordanian pilot’s release.
The growing calls for Jordan to disengage from the international coalition against the IS group sparked fears of insecurity in a country that shares a 375-kilometre border with Syria and abuts Iraq’s restive Anbar province.
The captured Jordanian pilot is from a tribal area in the Karak region south of Amman, home to several East Bank tribes that form the backbone of the country’s security apparatus and provide vital support for the ruling Hashemite dynasty.
Kasaesbeh’s capture threatened to strain the relationship between Jordan’s powerful tribes and the crown. Members of the pilot's family repeatedly accused the government of botching efforts to win his release and also criticised Jordan's participation in the anti-Islamic State group alliance.
Reporting from Amman, FRANCE 24’s Gaelle Sundelin noted that, “In the past week, people had been asking for Jordan to, if not withdraw completely, then at least step back from the coalition.”
But the release of the gruesome IS group video on Tuesday had changed public opinion on the streets of the capital, said Sundelin. “With the video being shown last night, most Jordanians are starting to rally behind their king and the government. They are starting to realise that ISIS is at their doorstep and that Jordan needs to take action.”
The killing of the Jordanian pilot drew worldwide condemnation, including from US President Barack Obama and the UN Security Council.
During a visit to Washington Tuesday, King Abdullah met with Obama at a hastily arranged White House meeting and vowed not to let up in the fight against the IS group.
Abdullah has portrayed the campaign against the extremists as a battle over values. In a speech later aired on Jordanian state television, he urged his countrymen to unite. “It's the duty of all of us to stand united and show the real values of Jordanians in the face of these hardships,'' said Abdullah.
(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP, REUTERS)
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