Liberman praises Jordan’s execution of al-Qaeda prisoners

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman on Wednesday offered his condolences to Jordan for the “barbaric” killing of its pilot by the Islamic State, and praised Amman for its prompt retaliation — the execution of two jihadist prisoners.

Jordan executed two al-Qaeda inmates before dawn Wednesday, a government spokesman said, just hours after Islamic State terrorists released a video purportedly showing a captured Jordanian pilot being burned alive in a cage.

The Israeli foreign minister urged world leaders to operate in the same manner as Jordan, with similarly harsh measures, in an effort to “destroy and eradicate” terror.

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“One must praise King Abdullah for his swift and powerful action against despicable terrorism, that this morning a terrorist whose release was sought by the Islamic State and another al-Qaeda operative were executed, and soon other imprisoned terrorists in the kingdom will be executed as well,” Liberman said in a statement.

World leaders should fight the Islamic State in “a similar fashion to that of the Jordanian king, because terror cannot be won with words and declarations, but only with harsh measures,” he said.

Liberman decried any form of negotiations or deals with terrorists, including prisoner swaps and said terrorists must be “destroyed and eradicated.”

Israel has engaged in several deals over the years to release convicted terrorists and other combatants.

With regard to the pilot’s death, which Liberman termed “barbaric,” the foreign minister said Israel “identifies with [Jordan’s] pain,” and supports Jordan’s “harsh and decisive response.”

Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani identified the two prisoners executed by hanging early Wednesday as Sajida al-Rishawi and Ziad al-Karbouly.

A security source said the executions were carried out at Swaqa prison south of the capital Amman in the presence of an Islamic legal official.

Over the past week, Jordan had offered to trade Rishawi, a failed suicide bomber, for the pilot, Lt. Moaz al-Kasasbeh, but froze any swap after saying it had received no proof that the pilot was still alive.

This combination of two photographs shows the detail of a poster of an undated photograph of Jordanian pilot Lt. Moaz al-Kasasbeh, left, used during a demonstration calling for his release from the Islamic State group, and a still image from video, right, of Sajida al-Rishawi, an Iraqi woman sentenced to death in Jordan for her involvement in a 2005 terrorist attack on a hotel that killed 60 people. (photo credit: AP Photo)

Rishawi had been sentenced to death after her 2005 role in a triple hotel bombing in Amman that killed 60 people. Karbouly was sent to death row in 2008 for plotting terror attacks on Jordanians in Iraq.

The killing of the pilot outraged Jordanians and drew worldwide condemnation, including from President Barack Obama and the UN Security Council.

Jordan had on Tuesday vowed an “earth-shattering” response to the killing of Kasasbeh, hours after a harrowing video emerged online purporting to show the captive and caged 26-year-old F-16 fighter pilot engulfed in flames.

Kasasbeh had fallen into the hands of the militants in December when his F-16 crashed near Raqqa, Syria, the de facto capital of the Islamic State group’s self-styled caliphate. He is the only coalition pilot to be captured to date.

AP and AFP contributed to this report.