Jordan has executed two ISIS-linked prisoners, including a would-be female suicide bomber, it has been revealed this morning.
The executions, at about 4am local time today, came just hours after Islamic State militants released a sickening video showing a captured Jordanian fighter pilot being burned alive in a
cage.
Jordan had vowed a swift and lethal response and government officials this morning revealed that two prisoners, Sajida al-Rishawi and Ziad al-Karbouli, have already been hanged.
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, Ziad al-Karbouli, an Iraqi al Qaeda operative, who was convicted in 2008 for killing a Jordanian.
The executions took place after gruesome footage emerged showing Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh being torched to death by his captors. The release of the expertly-edited video – which represents a new level of barbarity from a group notorious for its savagery – prompted Jordan to announce it would execute all six prisoners convicted of association with ISIS at dawn today, which is usually at 6.40am (4.40amGMT).
Within an hour of the 22-minute-long video’s publication, Jordan had reportedly moved ISIS-linked prisoners to a jail in the south of the country which is usually used for state executions. This morning, government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani announced that two of those prisoners had been executed. Ziad
al-Karbouli and Sajida al-Rishawi.
The executions took place at Swaqa prison about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of the Jordanian capital of Amman.
At sunrise, two ambulances carrying the bodies drove away from the prison with security escorts. A security source familiar with the case said: They were both calm and showed no emotions and just prayed.’
It came after Momani vowed that Jordan’s response to the pilot’s killing would be ‘earth-shattering’.
Over the past week, Jordan had offered to trade al-Rishawi, a failed suicide bomber, for the pilot, but froze any swap after saying it had received no proof he was still alive.
Mamdouh al-Ameri, spokesman for the Jordanian armed forces, confirmed the pilot’s death and then vowed revenge, hours after the video was released. In a televised address at the time, he said: ‘While the military forces mourn the martyr, they emphasise his blood will not be shed in vain.
The revenge will be as big as the calamity that has hit Jordan.’
King Abdullah II, speaking during his U.S visit in Washington, also made a statement on Jordanian TV, saying he had received news of the ‘martyrdom with sadness and deep sorrow’. Calling the murder a ‘cowardly act of terror’, he also pleaded for his countrymen to stand ‘side-by-side’, vowing that Kasasbeh’s death ‘would only make us stronger’.
