Jordan executes 2 al-Qaida prisoners after IS kills pilot

[Lite Beer]

Jordan executes 2 al-Qaida prisoners after IS kills pilot
OMAR AKOUR, Associated Press
KARIN LAUB, Associated Press

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Islamic State group militants burned a captured Jordanian pilot to death in a cage, according to a purported video of the violence released Tuesday. The kingdom, which had vowed a swift and lethal response, executed two al-Qaida prisoners by hanging early Wednesday.

The pilot's gruesome death sparked outrage and anti-Islamic State group demonstrations in Jordan. The video emerged after a weeklong drama over a possible prisoner exchange for a female al-Qaida operative imprisoned in Jordan who was one of the two prisoners executed.

The Jordanian military confirmed the death of 26-year-old Lt. Muath Al-Kaseasbeh, who was captured by the extremists in December when his F-16 crashed while he was flying a mission as part of the U.S.-led air campaign against the Islamic State group.

He was the first airman participating in the U.S.-led bombing raids against militant positions in Syria and Iraq to be captured.

In Washington, Jordan's King Abdullah II and President Barack Obama vowed in a hastily arranged White House meeting not to let up in the fight against the Islamic State group. Jordan, a staunch Western ally, is a member of the coalition.

In a first response to the killing of the pilot, Jordan executed Sajida al-Rishawi and Ziad al-Karbouly, two Iraqis linked to al-Qaida, government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani said. Another official said they were executed by hanging.

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 of al-Rishawi and al-Karbouly drove away from the prison with security escorts.

Over the past week, Jordan had offered to trade al-Rishawi, a failed suicide bomber, for the pilot, but froze any swap after failing to receive any proof that the pilot was still alive. Jordanian TV said the pilot was killed as long ago as Jan. 3.

Al-Rishawi had been sentenced to death after her 2005 role in a triple hotel bombing that killed 60 people in Amman orchestrated by al-Qaida in Iraq, the predecessor of the Islamic State group. Al-Karbouly was sent to death row in 2008 for plotting terror attacks on Jordanians in Iraq.

Al-Kaseasbeh had fallen into the hands of the militants when his F-16 crashed near Raqqa, Syria, the de facto capital of the group's self-styled caliphate.

In the 20-minute video purportedly showing his killing, he displayed signs of having been beaten, including a black eye. Toward the end of the clip, he is shown wearing an orange jumpsuit. He stands in an outdoor cage as a masked militant ignites a line of fuel leading to it.

The video, which threatened other purported Jordanian pilots by name, was released on militant websites and bore the logo of the extremist group's al-Furqan media service. The clip featured the slick production and graphics used in previous Islamic State videos. The video could not immediately be confirmed independently by The Associated Press.

The killing of the 26-year-old airman appeared aimed at pressuring the government of Jordan — a close U.S. ally — to leave the coalition.

Jordan's role in a bombing campaign targeting Muslims is not popular in Jordan. However, some said the extremists' brutal killing of a fellow Muslim could galvanize resentment against them among fellow Sunni Muslims in the region.

At their White House meeting, the Jordanian monarch and Obama affirmed that "the vile murder of this brave Jordanian will only serve to steel the international community's resolve to destroy ISIL," said White House spokesman Alistair Baskey, using an alternate acronym for the extremist group.

Abdullah, who was on a previously scheduled trip to Washington, arrived after nightfall Tuesday and made no remarks to reporters as he and Obama sat side by side in the Oval Office.

In a statement before his meeting with Abdullah, Obama vowed the pilot's death would "redouble the vigilance and determination on the part of our global coalition to make sure they are degraded and ultimately defeated."

Abdullah has portrayed the campaign against the extremists as a battle over values. In a speech Tuesday night 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," Abdullah said. The official Petra news agency said he would be cutting short his Washington trip to return to Jordan.

The army spokesman, Mamdouh al-Ameri, said the country would strike back hard. "Our punishment and revenge will be as huge as the loss of the Jordanians," he said.

Jordan faces increasing threats from the militants. Jordan borders areas of Islamic State group's self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq, while there are have been signs of greater support for the group's militant ideas among Jordan's young and poor.

The pilot's father, Safi Yousef al-Kaseasbeh, was attending a tribal meeting in Amman when news of the video surfaced, and he was seen being led from the session. Other men were seen outside, overcome with emotion.

After word spread that the pilot had been killed, dozens of people chanting slogans against the Islamic State group marched toward the royal palace to express their anger. Waving a Jordanian flag, they chanted, "Damn you, Daesh!" — using the Arabic acronym of the group — and "We will avenge, we will avenge our son's blood."

Protesters marched in the pilot's home village of Ai and set a local government office on fire. Witnesses said the atmosphere was tense and that riot police patrolled the streets.

Al-Kaseasbeh is from a tribal area in southern Jordan's Karak district. The tribes are considered a mainstay of support for the monarchy, but the pilot's capture has strained that relationship. Members of the pilot's family have repeatedly accused the government of botching efforts to win his release and have also criticized Jordan's participation in the anti-Islamic State group alliance.

The Islamic State group has released a series of gruesome videos showing the beheading of captives, including two American journalists, an American aid worker and two British aid workers. Tuesday's was the first to show a captive being burned alive.

David L. Phillips, a former State Department adviser on the Middle East, said he believes the pilot's killing could backfire, antagonizing Sunnis against the extremists, including Sunni tribes in Iraq.

"They need to have a welcome from Sunni Arabs in Anbar Province (in Iraq) to maintain their operations," said Phillips, director of the Program on Peace-building and Human Rights at Columbia University.

He said the extremist group's recent military setbacks may have fueled the killings. "They need to compensate for that with increasingly gruesome killings of prisoners," he said.

The latest video was released three days after another video showed the purported beheading of a Japanese journalist, Kenji Goto, who was captured by the Islamic State group in October.

The militants had linked the fates of the pilot and the journalist. A second Japanese hostage was apparently killed earlier last month.

The U.N. Security Council in a statement condemned the "brutality of ISIL, which is responsible for thousands of crimes and abuses against people from all faiths, ethnicities and nationalities, and without regard to any basic value of humanity."

___

Laub reported from Jerusalem.

-- (c) Associated Press 2015-02-04

[Mosha]

It's a start.

[daveAustin]

On ya, Jordan. If this were a British pilot and the failed suicide bomber were in a UK prison, she'd be protected under all sorts of EU-centric human rights laws, with nary a hint of harsher punishment in retribution for the murder of one of their own. If that's what being civilized is, I don't want to be.

[arjunadawn]

Its further evidence that IS has now turned on Jordan. It was inevitable as Jordan is not seen as legitimate. Stay in the coalition; leave the coalition? It doesn't matter- they are still aiming at Amman shortly. Evidence of the lack of legitimacy IS extends to Amman can be gleaned from their having killed the pilot without even a valid pretense to negotiation. They have no intention of extending to Abdullah legitimacy. They want to fracture the delicate tribal balance that enables the Hashemite's last line of power. Abdullah's days may be numbered as a Monarch but he is no pushover. He is smart, savvy, and he is exceptionally well trained in insurgency and special operations, personally. It is unclear if he realizes his patron, the USA, will shortly throw him under the bus.

[cookee68]

On ya, Jordan. If this were a British pilot and the failed suicide bomber were in a UK prison, she'd be protected under all sorts of EU-centric human rights laws, with nary a hint of harsher punishment in retribution for the murder of one of their own. If that's what being civilized is, I don't want to be.

Maybe all the do gooders should take their heads out of there arse and stop smelling their own Shit, These people use the human rights Shit to weaken us, and against us, it only benefits them, as you stated

[Paulc01]

On ya, Jordan. If this were a British pilot and the failed suicide bomber were in a UK prison, she'd be protected under all sorts of EU-centric human rights laws, with nary a hint of harsher punishment in retribution for the murder of one of their own. If that's what being civilized is, I don't want to be.

Hah! That and more. The dogooders would already have had an online support group, with hashtags and all, lining up to defend her and attack her victims.

[steveyinasia]

A new level of lowness in barbaric acts by a bunch of cowards. Go crawl back under a rock you mongrels.

[NE1]

Well done Jordan.

[bkkjames]

Its further evidence that IS has now turned on Jordan. It was inevitable as Jordan is not seen as legitimate. Stay in the coalition; leave the coalition? It doesn't matter- they are still aiming at Amman shortly. Evidence of the lack of legitimacy IS extends to Amman can be gleaned from their having killed the pilot without even a valid pretense to negotiation. They have no intention of extending to Abdullah legitimacy. They want to fracture the delicate tribal balance that enables the Hashemite's last line of power. Abdullah's days may be numbered as a Monarch but he is no pushover. He is smart, savvy, and he is exceptionally well trained in insurgency and special operations, personally. It is unclear if he realizes his patron, the USA, will shortly throw him under the bus.

Let me guess~ Tom Clancy was your favorite author?

[davidmann]

let drop a nuclear bomb on this lot have done with them all in one go when will the world man up

[Mosha]

Its further evidence that IS has now turned on Jordan. It was inevitable as Jordan is not seen as legitimate. Stay in the coalition; leave the coalition? It doesn't matter- they are still aiming at Amman shortly. Evidence of the lack of legitimacy IS extends to Amman can be gleaned from their having killed the pilot without even a valid pretense to negotiation. They have no intention of extending to Abdullah legitimacy. They want to fracture the delicate tribal balance that enables the Hashemite's last line of power. Abdullah's days may be numbered as a Monarch but he is no pushover. He is smart, savvy, and he is exceptionally well trained in insurgency and special operations, personally. It is unclear if he realizes his patron, the USA, will shortly throw him under the bus.

ISIL and if I was Jordanian I'd google Levant.

[arjunadawn]

Its further evidence that IS has now turned on Jordan. It was inevitable as Jordan is not seen as legitimate. Stay in the coalition; leave the coalition? It doesn't matter- they are still aiming at Amman shortly. Evidence of the lack of legitimacy IS extends to Amman can be gleaned from their having killed the pilot without even a valid pretense to negotiation. They have no intention of extending to Abdullah legitimacy. They want to fracture the delicate tribal balance that enables the Hashemite's last line of power. Abdullah's days may be numbered as a Monarch but he is no pushover. He is smart, savvy, and he is exceptionally well trained in insurgency and special operations, personally. It is unclear if he realizes his patron, the USA, will shortly throw him under the bus.

Let me guess~ Tom Clancy was your favorite author?

Sorry, I don't do fiction.

[Scott]

Troll post removed along with replies.

[sabaii69]

Its further evidence that IS has now turned on Jordan. It was inevitable as Jordan is not seen as legitimate. Stay in the coalition; leave the coalition? It doesn't matter- they are still aiming at Amman shortly. Evidence of the lack of legitimacy IS extends to Amman can be gleaned from their having killed the pilot without even a valid pretense to negotiation. They have no intention of extending to Abdullah legitimacy. They want to fracture the delicate tribal balance that enables the Hashemite's last line of power. Abdullah's days may be numbered as a Monarch but he is no pushover. He is smart, savvy, and he is exceptionally well trained in insurgency and special operations, personally. It is unclear if he realizes his patron, the USA, will shortly throw him under the bus.

Let me guess~ Tom Clancy was your favorite author?

Sorry, I don't do fiction.

Arj, I simply don't understand your 'USA, under the bus statement'. Are you just another jerk taking a cheap shot at America? Hey, I simply don't see any other superpower spending massive amounts of money to help other countries who can't help themselves and sending military everywhere to take on tyrants. What great country are you from and what the hell is it doing? Jealousy, envy and simple embarrassment of ones own country makes you want to take cheap shots. BTW, did you serve in your country's military? I didn't think so. JAW (Just Another <deleted>)

[sgtsabai]

Mr. bbkjames you know not with whom you speak about "fiction". Seems to me the US threw the Kurds under the bus a few years back, if the neocons decide so, Abdullah will go under the bus.

[watcharacters]

Where's it all going to end, with a thermonuclear bomb?

[ggt]

The Western countries are too damned civilized to give the IS thugs what they deserve...it took another Muslim country to dish out what the IS cowards have been doing for months now...good for Jordan...hope more Muslim countries become outraged at the IS insanity...

[brewsterbudgen]

let drop a nuclear bomb on this lot have done with them all in one go when will the world man up

Very intelligent

[Dumbastheycome]

I feel sad for those of my friends who are members of the Muslim faith. All of those that I know are adamant in saying they consider the people who perform such acts are NOT followers of Islam. Their horror and disgust is identical to any who understand the principles of respecting humanity regardless of religious faith or not. Their opinion of these people is that perpertrators of terrorist butchery or other acts purely intended to achieve power/ status under the banner of any religion or faith are not acceptable. And for the record... I have no religion or faith. But I accept that existence is that which the still inexplicable has named variously as "God". Religion has been the bookmark of extremes in history. But for me it as never never had any excuse under the umbrella of religious justification. Personal faith should be reserved for the voluntary individual and not inflicted in any manner whatever .

[arjunadawn]

Its further evidence that IS has now turned on Jordan. It was inevitable as Jordan is not seen as legitimate. Stay in the coalition; leave the coalition? It doesn't matter- they are still aiming at Amman shortly. Evidence of the lack of legitimacy IS extends to Amman can be gleaned from their having killed the pilot without even a valid pretense to negotiation. They have no intention of extending to Abdullah legitimacy. They want to fracture the delicate tribal balance that enables the Hashemite's last line of power. Abdullah's days may be numbered as a Monarch but he is no pushover. He is smart, savvy, and he is exceptionally well trained in insurgency and special operations, personally. It is unclear if he realizes his patron, the USA, will shortly throw him under the bus.

Let me guess~ Tom Clancy was your favorite author?

Sorry, I don't do fiction.

Arj, I simply don't understand your 'USA, under the bus statement'. Are you just another jerk taking a cheap shot at America? Hey, I simply don't see any other superpower spending massive amounts of money to help other countries who can't help themselves and sending military everywhere to take on tyrants. What great country are you from and what the hell is it doing? Jealousy, envy and simple embarrassment of ones own country makes you want to take cheap shots. BTW, did you serve in your country's military? I didn't think so. JAW (Just Another <deleted>)

The US has repeatedly injured allies under this administration. The US has great power still, but less credibility in the region. The military is sending forces and power everywhere to "take on tyrants" but this is a grade-school description on what is happening. Irrespective of the motive or intent for every "tyrant" that has been taking on Islamist Jihadis have prospered. The West or even Israel are not the first target of the Third Islamic Jihad, illegitimate "tyrants" are. Therefore, the ridiculous Arab Spring was in essence an Islamist Summer. We handed them vast strategic areas that are now being stitched together. At a certain point a rational mind must ask cui bono? This is not conspiracy musing; this is the logic extension of observing the foreign policy of this administration- who benefits?

When you open your post suggesting you just dont understand but then only proceed to attack me, you discredit yourself. I am an American. The Latin logo associated with my username reflects where my "cheap shot" perspective comes from. There is nothing wrong with being pro American, or any nationality; I actually support nationalism. I love what my country was but I no longer have fantasies that it still "is." By my making a statement you don't fancy that does not make it wrong nor does it make me a "jerk," "embarass[ed]," or taking "cheap shots."

As a perceived illegitimate buffer state in the IS pincers (Syria through Anbar) its greatest remaining foreign value is, ironically, to Israel. I have spent a considerable amount of time in Amman and elsewhere and know the country well. I am aware it exists at increasing peril.

[Dumbastheycome]

If you encourage dogs to bite, they probably will. Without thought or favour.

[Trouble]

On ya, Jordan. If this were a British pilot and the failed suicide bomber were in a UK prison, she'd be protected under all sorts of EU-centric human rights laws, with nary a hint of harsher punishment in retribution for the murder of one of their own. If that's what being civilized is, I don't want to be.

Should have used the same method to execute them. Eye for Eye kind of thing. Would not have bothered me at all.

[DefaultName]

I'm sorry, but I can't agree with this. If these people were sentenced to death in a lawful court then fine, execute them in line with that judgement and on the date the court said. In this case the time-scales were changed in response to IS actions. That IMO is wrong, only the court should influence this, not politics.

Sounds like the world is better off without these two in it, but politicians can't be trusted with these decisions, that's why civilised countries have independent courts.

[chuckd]

I'm sorry, but I can't agree with this. If these people were sentenced to death in a lawful court then fine, execute them in line with that judgement and on the date the court said. In this case the time-scales were changed in response to IS actions. That IMO is wrong, only the court should influence this, not politics.

Sounds like the world is better off without these two in it, but politicians can't be trusted with these decisions, that's why civilised countries have independent courts.

The decision to execute the terrorists was made by the KING of Jordan.

He is hardly a politician in the strictest sense of the word. He is the supreme authority in Jordan.