JORDAN: TWO CONVICTED TERRORISTS EXECUTED IN RETALIATION FOR PILOT’S KILLING BY ISLAMIC STATE

Jordan executed two Al-Qaeda prisoners by hanging in retaliation for the killing of a Jordanian pilot by the Islamic State (IS) group.
Twenty-six-year-old Lt. Muath Al-Kaseasbeh was burned alive by Islamic State militants, according to a purported video of the violence released on 3 February. In the 20-minute video purportedly showing his killing, 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. Al-Kaseasbeh had fallen into the hands of the militants in December when his F-16 crashed near Raqqa, Syria, while he was flying a mission as part of the U.S.-led air campaign against the IS.
In a first response to the killing of the pilot, Jordan executed a failed suicide bomber, Sajida al-Rishawi, and Ziad al-Karbouly, two Iraqis linked to Al-Qaeda. The executions took place at Swaqa prison about 50 miles south of the Jordanian capital of Amman.
Previously, Jordan had offered to trade the female Al-Qaeda operative 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 3 January. 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-Qaeda. Al-Karbouly was sent to death row in 2008 for plotting terror attacks on Jordanians in Iraq.