Jordan has promised “punishment and revenge” and “strong, earth-shaking and decisive” action in response to the death of a pilot captured and burnt to death by ISIS.
Heraldscotland.com reports:
BYPASS THE CENSORS
Sign up to get unfiltered news delivered straight to your inbox.
You can unsubscribe any time. By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use
The Jordanian army said it would avenge the death of Lt Moaz al-Kasasbeh after an online video purportedly released by the militants appeared to show the captured pilot being burned to death.
Jordan authorities were expected to execute “within hours” Sajida al-Rishaw an Iraqi woman the government had sought to exchange for the pilot, a Jordanian security source said.
Islamic State released a video on Tuesday that purported to show the pilot, Mouath al-Kasaesbeh, being burned to death. The video’s authenticity could not immediately be confirmed.
Al-Rishawi, an al Qaeda prisoner was sentenced to death for her role in a 2005 suicide bomb attack that killed 60 people in Amman. The authorities will also execute three men previously sentenced for militancy, the source said.
The IS footage, which is titled Healing the Believers’ Chests purports to show the captured airman wearing an orange jumpsuit as a trail of petrol leading up to the cage is seen being set alight.
Armed forced spokesman Mamdouh al-Ameri said: “The military forces announce that the hero pilot, Moaz al-Kasasbeh, has fallen as a martyr, and ask God to accept him with the martyrs.
“While the military forces mourn the martyr, they emphasise his blood will not be shed in vain. Our punishment and revenge will be as huge as the loss of the Jordanians.”
The video was released on militant websites and bore the logo of the extremist group’s al Furqan media service.
King Abdullah of Jordan is cutting short a trip to the US to return and oversee the response.
President Barack Obama said that the video was more evidence of the group’s “viciousness and barbarity”.
He said it would “redouble the vigilance and determination on the part of our global coalition to make sure they are degraded and ultimately defeated.”
It indicated that “whatever ideology they are operating out of is bankrupt”.
Lt al-Kaseasbeh, 26, fell into the hands of the militants in December when his Jordanian F-16 crashed near Raqqa, Syria, the de facto capital of the group’s self-styled caliphate. He was the first pilot from the US-led coalition to be captured.
Sean Adl-Tabatabai
Be the first to comment