Jordan has vowed a “strong, earth shaking and decisive” response to a video of the execution of a Jordanian pilot by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terror group.
The January 3rd murder of 26-year-old pilot, Muath al-Kasaesbeh, was announced Tuesday by the group.
The news came while Jordan’s King Abdullah II was in Washington DC for a state visit at the White House with Pres. Barack Obama. Abdullah II immediately cut short his visit to fly back to Amman to deal with the issue.
In response, Jordan’s military vowed its revenge would be as brutal as the execution of its much-loved pilot. Al-Kasaesbeh came from a well-known family in a large Bedouin tribe that forms the backbone of support for the Hashemite monarchy.
The Hashemite monarch addressed Jordanians on national television via a video hookup from Washington, calling the murder an act of “cowardly terror” by a deviant group bearing no connection to Islam. He asked all Jordanians to unite.
“The sentence of death pending on … Iraqi Sajida al-Rishawi will be carried out at dawn,” said an unnamed security official, speaking to the AFP news agency.
“While the military forces mourn the martyr, they emphasize his blood will not be shed in vain,” said military spokesman Mamdou al-Ameri in a statement read on Jordanian state television.
Thousands of Jordanians gathered in the pilot’s hometown of Karak, burning tires and blocking roads to demand justice and express their outrage at his death and the means used to kill him.