Jordan to execute prisoner after pilot killed

Jordan says it will execute al Qaeda prisoner Sajida al-Rishawi and other captives at dawn on Wednesday after the "Islamic State" released a video Tuesday showing captive Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh being burned to death in a cage.

"The sentence of death pending on… Iraqi Sajida al-Rishawi will be carried out at dawn," a security official speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP news agency.

"The decision has been taken to implement the death sentence against the Iraqi convict and others," a security source told Reuters.

Rishawi has been on death row since 2005, when she was sentenced to death for participating in attacks targeting hotels in Amman, Jordan in 2005 that killed 60 people. She was a top lieutenant of Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al Qaeda leader in Iraq who was killed in 2006.

The announcement of Rishawi's impending execution comes after the IS terror militia released a video Tuesday appearing to show captured Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh being burned alive in a cage. He had been held in IS captivity since his plane crashed over Syria in December.

The head of the Jordanian armed forces informed al-Kaseasbeh's family that he had been killed. The Jordanian government confirmed that the killing took place on January 3, state television reported.

Jordan last week had offered to exchange Rishawi in exchange for al-Kaseasbeh, but those negotiations fell through after Jordanian officials said IS failed to prove he was still alive.

Jordan vows 'revenge'

Jordan's armed forces pledged revenge for al-Kaseasbeh's killing.

"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," military spokesman Colonel Mamdouh al-Ameri said in a televised statement.

Meahwhile, Jordan's king Abdullah has cut short his visit to the United States and will return home immediately.

"This (is) cowardly terror by a criminal group that has no relation to Islam," Abdullah said in a televised address from Washington, DC.

"It's the duty of all of us to stand united and show the real values of Jordanians in the face of these hardships," he said.

US condemns 'barbarity'

The White House said Tuesday after the video surfaced that the United States "strongly condemns" the Islamic State's actions and called for the immediate release of all hostages being held by the group.

"Should in fact this video be authentic, it's just one more indication of the viciousness (and) barbarity of this organization," US President Barack Obama said, adding that the video would "redouble the vigilance and determination on the part of the global coalition to make sure" that the Islamic State group is "ultimately defeated."

US Central Command leader General Lloyd Austin, who is leading the coalition campaign against IS, vowed the US will stand with Jordan until the militant group is defeated.

"US Central Command strongly condemns [IS's] savage murder of Lieutenant Muath al-Kaseasbeh," he said, adding that he had spoken with the chief of staff of Jordan's armed forces and "assured him that we stand with our Jordanian partners and together we will fight this barbaric enemy until it is defeated."

On Saturday, the terror group released a video showing the execution of Japanese hostage Kenji Goto.

bw/rc (AFP, Reuters, AP, dpa)