Jordan executed two jihadist prisoners at dawn today, after vowing a ‘harsh response’ to the Self proclaimed “Islamic State” terror outfit’s burning alive of a Jordanian pilot, government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani said.
Would-be Iraqi female suicide bomber Sajida al-Rishawi and Iraqi Al-Qaeda member Ziad al-Karboli were executed at 4:00 am local time (0200 GMT), Momani told the media.
A security source said the executions were carried out at Swaqa prison south of the capital Amman.
Jordan had promised to begin executing death-row Islamic extremists at daybreak in response to the murder of Maaz al-Kassasbeh, who was captured by IS when his plane went down 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.
Jordan had earlier yesterday vowed an “earth-shattering” response to the killing of Kassasbeh, hours after a harrowing video emerged online purporting to show the newly married captive and caged 26-year-old F-16 fighter pilot engulfed in flames. In the video, the pilot apears to have his hands clasped in prayer even as he is engulfed in flames.
U.S President Obama earlier said the video, if authentic, was more evidence of the group’s “viciousness and barbarity” and called the group’s ideology “bankrupt.”
“And it, I think, will redouble the vigilance and determination on the part of a global coalition to make sure that they are degraded and ultimately defeated,” Obama told reporters.
Meanwhile widespread protests broke out in Jordan where the King was denounced as a traitor for for allowing the pilot ot be killed and dragged into the Anti IS war.
