After the Islamic State released a video of militants burning a captured Jordanian pilot alive, Jordan responded by executing two Iraqi jihadists, reported Reuters.
The graphic video showed the pilot, First Lt. Moaz al-Kasasbeh, wearing an orange prisoners jumpsuit, inside of a metal cage with a fuel trail leading back to a torch-wielding militant. The IS militant ignited the trail and barbarically burned al-Kasasbeh alive. The people and government of Jordan were outraged and cried for revenge.
In response, Jordan executed Sajida al-Rishawi, who was captured after a failed suicide bombing attempt in 2005, and Ziad al-Karbouli, a high-ranking al Qaeda officer, by hanging. The Islamic State demanded that Rishawi be released in exchanged for the Japanese hostage that the group had recently beheaded.
Karbouli was accused of helping plan the hotel bombings in Amman, Jordan that killed 57 people in 2005. As The New York Times noted, both of the condemned were “affiliated with Al Qaeda in Iraq, which became the present-day Islamic State.”
The response to the pilot’s brutal killing has been strong and somewhat peculiar in certain pockets of Middle Eastern Muslims. Reuters reported that even Muslim clerics who sympathize with jihadist movements thought Kasasbeh’s form of execution “was considered despicable by Islam.” Again, note that this is from a jihadist sympathizer’s perspective.
Stricken with sadness and anger, Safi al-Kasasbeh, the pilot’s father, demanded more revenge for his son’s unfortunate murder.
“I want the [Jordanian] state to get revenge for my son’s blood through more executions of those people who follow this criminal group that shares nothing with Islam,” he said. “Jordanians are demanding that the state and coalition take revenge with even more painful blows to destroy these criminals.”
Jordan’s King Abdullah swore an “earth-shaking response” to the pilot’s execution. The country is allied with America and anti-terrorist coalition nations.
