TheCable

Jordanian authorities have executed Sajida al-Rishawi, the prisoner whose release Islamic State (ISIS) desperately wanted, after the terror group released a video showing Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh being burnt alive.

Jordan executed the prisoner, alongside Ziyad Karboli, another convict, in response to ISIS brutal killing of its distinguished pilot.

Sajida al-Rishawi was a female Jihadist who was captured after a failed suicide bomb attack on Jordanian capital, Amman, in 2005.

al-Rishawi has been on death row since her bomb failed to detonate, while the others died in the triple hotel bomb attack which killed about 60 people in Amman.

al-Rishawi and Karboli are both Iraqis who were members of the violent Islamic sect, al-Qaeda.

The executions came less than 24 hours after ISIS posted a video of the live burning of al’Kasasbeh.

Mohammad al-Momani, the government spokesman, said the two prisoners were executed at 04:00 local time (02:00 GMT), as a part of the “earth-shattering” response Jordan is willing to give ISIS for the death of its pilot who is now tagged “a martyr”.

“His blood will not be shed in vain. Our punishment and revenge will be as huge as the loss of the Jordanians,” Mamdouh al-Ameri, a spokesman for the Jordanian armed forces, said.

The pilot, who was captured after he ejected himself from his crashing plane in Raqqa back in December 2014, was used as a bait to get Jordan into releasing al-Rishawi in a prisoner swap.

Jordanian authorities were willing to go ahead with the swap,provided ISIS could provide proof of life of the pilot, whom the authorities said was killed in the first week of January.

Since the death of the pilot, there has been rage, grief and protest in Jordan for immediate response against ISIS who has breached what it stands for; violating the teaching of the Prophet which says no part of the human body should be burnt.