13:54
Jordan
has ordered a female terrorist with the ISIL to death row after the Takfiri
group released a video showing torching to death of a Jordanian pilot.
"The sentence of death pending on... Iraqi Sajida
al-Rishawi will be carried out at dawn," a security official said on
Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Rishawi awaits execution for her part in attacks on
hotels in the Jordanian capital Amman that killed 60 people in 2005. She
survived because her bomb failed to detonate.
ISIL had offered to spare the life of the Jordanian
fighter pilot, Lieutenant Maaz al-Kassasbeh, if she were released.
The 22-minute video, which surfaced on social media on
Tuesday, showed the pilot being burned to death. He was seen dressed in an
orange jumpsuit and surrounded by flames 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.
Amman had pledged to save the serviceman after ISIL
declared decapitation of a Japanese hostage.
Earth-shattering
retaliation
King Abdullah of Jordan, who plans to cut short a
visit to the United States to return home, spoke on Jordan TV and urged all
Jordanians to unite.
Confirming the pilot's death, the king said "it's
the duty of all of us to stand united and show the real values of Jordanians in
the face of these hardships."
The Jordanian army and government 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.
A Jordanian military spokesman said in a televised
statement, "The blood of the martyr will not go in vain... and our
vengeance will be on the scale of the sorrow that has struck all
Jordanians."
Jordan's Ministry of Religious Endowments said mosques
across the country would offer funeral prayers for Kasassbeh after noon prayers
on Wednesday.
Protests
Thousands of Jordanians rallied in Amman
following the incident, calling for the immediate execution of six ISIL
prisoners. The hometown of the victim Karak also reportedly witnessed gunfire
and rioting.
Following the release of the footage, Jordan
reportedly moved six ISIL-linked prisoners to a jail in the south of the
country, which is usually used for state executions.
Rishawi is one of six prisoners who have reportedly
been transferred to the Swaqa prison.
Reactions
Following the incident, UN Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon condemned the incident as an "appalling act."
Ban labeled the ISIL "a terrorist organization
with no regard for human life," and urged world governments to redouble
their efforts to "combat the scourge of terrorism and extremism,"
according to his spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
Moreover, US President Barack Obama said the video of
Kassasbeh’s burning to death illustrates the terrorist group's
"bankrupt" ideology, interested only in death and destruction. He
said it would be "just one more indication of the viciousness and
barbarity of this organization."
The White House said Obama will host Abdullah in the
Oval Office at 6:00 pm (2300 GMT) on Tuesday -- in a hastily-arranged meeting.
US intelligence was still working to confirm that the
video is authentic.
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also reacted to the
apparent execution on Wednesday, saying, "It was an unforgivable,
outrageous act. I strongly condemn it."
ISIL warning
In a recent video posted online, ISIL militants showed
the Japanese freelance journalist Kenji Goto saying he would be killed unless
Jordan released Rishawi.
It showed Goto holding the photo of a dead body
allegedly belonging to Haruna Yukawa, another Japanese hostage that had been captured
by the ISIL Takfiri terrorists.
Goto said in the online footage that if Rishawi was
not ready for exchange for his life at the Turkish border by Thursday sunset,
January 29, Mosul time, the pilot would be killed immediately.
The group released a video on Saturday purportedly
showing Goto’s decapitation.
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