Jordan has made good on its vow to execute the Iraqi woman ISIS had sought in a prisoner swap as retaliation for the execution of pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh. Officials say failed suicide bomber Sajida al-Rishawi was hanged at dawn along with Ziyad Karboli, a top Iraqi al-Qaeda operative, Reuters reports. Jordan had said it was willing to trade al-Rishawi, who was sentenced to death for her role in a 2005 hotel bombing, for the captured pilot, but the country demanded to see proof he was still alive. Officials now believe he was already dead when negotiations were taking place, and that the horrific video of the pilot being burned alive in a cage was made on Jan. 3, less than two weeks after his capture, reports the New York Times.
Security sources tell Reuters that three other convicted terrorists will also be executed today. The capture of the 26-year-old pilot, a member of an influential tribe in Jordan, had led to criticism of King Abdullah II for bringing the country into the US-led anti-ISIS coalition, but analysts believe the execution will now cause Jordan to step up its involvement, the Guardian reports. One of the leading Sunni Muslim authorities has also condemned the killing, the AP reports. Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand sheik of Cairo's Al-Azhar Mosque, issued a statement last night saying the militants had violated Islam's ban on the mutilation of bodies and they should be killed or crucified. (More Jordan stories.)
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