Jordan executes two ISIL-linked Iraqi militants
Jordan has executed two ISIL-linked Iraqi militants after the Takfiri terrorist group released an online video purportedly showing a Jordanian pilot being burned alive.
In response to the killing of the 26-year-old pilot, Moaz al-Kassasbeh, Jordanian officials on Wednesday hanged Sajida al-Rishawi, a female terrorist linked to ISIL, and Ziyad Karboli, a senior al-Qaeda operative.
Rishawi was sentenced to death for her role in attacks on a string of hotels in the Jordanian capital of Amman in 2005 that killed 60 people.
Karboli was convicted in 2008 for killing a Jordanian national.
The 22-minute video, released on Tuesday, showed Kassasbeh dressed in an orange jumpsuit and surrounded by flames of fire inside a metal cage.
Kassasbeh was captured by ISIL on December 24, 2014, after his F-16 jet crashed while flying over northern Syria on a mission against the terrorists.
The Jordanian state television said the pilot was killed on January 3.
The Jordanian government and army have vowed to avenge the pilot's murder.
"Jordan's response will be earth-shattering," the country’s Information Minister Mohammed Momani said on television.
"The revenge will be as big as the calamity that has hit Jordan," army spokesman Colonel Mamdouh al-Ameri said in a televised statement.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also censured the apparent execution of the pilot days after the murder of two Japanese hostages by the terrorist group.
"It was an unforgivable, outrageous act. I strongly condemn it," Abe said early on Wednesday, adding, "I am infuriated by these inhumane and despicable acts of terrorism."
The terrorist group had threatened to execute the captured pilot if Amman failed to hand over Rishawi in exchange for Kenji Goto, a Japanese hostage, by a January 29 deadline.
ISIL also released a video on Saturday purportedly showing the decapitation of Goto, a week after his friend and fellow captive Haruna Yukawa was killed.
MSM/NN/HRB
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