The Jordanian government has vowed “punishment and revenge” against Islamic State after the jihadi group released a video showing a Jordanian pilot they were holding hostage being burned to death inside a locked cage.
Displaying a level of brutality shocking even by the standards of the group’s previous killings, the murder of First Lieutenant Muadh al-Kasasbeh is likely to heighten tensions further in Jordan, a key Arab member of US-led coalition against Isis. The kingdom has rounded up scores of jihadist sympathisers since the summer.
Jordan responded immediately by scheduling for Wednesday the executions of five convicted terrorists, including the failed suicide bomber whom the group had wanted to trade. Sajida al-Rishawi, whom Isis had wanted to swap for Japanese journalist, Kenji Goto, was one of five death row inmates moved to a prison where executions are carried out. The group was transferred to Wastaqa prison within hours of the video being uploaded.
In a short televised address, Jordan’s King Abdullah II called Kasasbeh’s killing an act of “cowardly terror by a criminal group that has no relation to Islam ... It’s the duty of all citizens to stand together”. Abdullah cut short a visit to the United States to return home after the video was released, but the White House said he would meet Barack Obama before he left. » | Martin Chulov in Beirut and Shiv Malik in London | Tuesday, February 03, 2015
