Jordan Executes Al Qaeda Prisoner After ISIS Murder
Middle Eastern nation had vowed 'revenge' after ISIS video showed Jordan pilot.
— -- Jordan executed an al Qaeda prisoner on death row, hours after promising "revenge" for the death of their own pilot at the hands of the terror group ISIS.
Sajida al-Rishawi was hanged early Wednesday morning local time in Jordan along with another prisoner identified as a senior terrorist, according to the Jordanian Information Ministry and state television.
Last week ISIS had demanded the release of al-Rishawi in exchange for a Japanese journalist the terror group was holding. The Jordanian government, in turn, demanded ISIS show proof of life for a Jordanian pilot also held by the terror group. It never did, and the deal fell apart.
In the days that followed, ISIS released a video of the Japanese journalist after he was apparently killed and, Monday, uploaded online gruesome footage apparently showing the Jordanian pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kasasbeh, being burned alive in an outdoor jail cell.
The video was met with fury across Jordan, and a spokesperson for Jordanian armed forces appeared on state television, saying, "Our punishment and revenge will be as huge as the loss of the Jordanians," according to the Associated Press. The spokesperson said the military believed al-Kasasbeth was actually killed in early January, well before the "negotiations" with ISIS over the Japanese hostage took place.
Al-Rishawi has been on death row in Jordan since confessing to her role in a 2005 al Qaeda bombing attack in Jordan.
The man killed with al-Rishawi, Ziad al-Karbouli, was identified by Jordanian state TV as a former associate of ex-al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Al-Karbouli has reportedly been in prison since 2006.
Related Stories
ABC News Live