Will Jordan save pilot under ISIS captivity by releasing jailed female bomber?

In a new audio message released by the Islamic State, Japanese journalist Kenji Goto said that the extremists will kill the captured Jordanian pilot if Amman doesn't release an Iraqi al Qaeda female bomber by sunset on Thursday.

Will Jordan save pilot under ISIS captivity by releasing jailed female bomber?

Beirut: In a new audio message released by the Islamic State, Japanese journalist Kenji Goto said that the extremists will kill the captured Jordanian pilot if Amman doesn't release an Iraqi al Qaeda female bomber by sunset on Thursday.

The new message which was apparently prepared in haste, did not feature the Japanese but simple played an audio message in the voice of the captured journalist and a text in Arabic.

The voice attributed to the surviving Japanese journalist Kenji Goto says that the ISIS have extended the deadline to Thursday sunset failing which the pilot will be killed.

“I’m Kenji Goto Jogo. This is a voice message I’ve been told to send to you. If Sajida al-Rishawi is not ready for exchange for my life at the Turkish border by Thursday sunset, 29th of January, Mosul time, the Jordanian pilot Mu’adh al-Kasasibah will be killed immediately,” SITE Intel Group quoted the message.If Sajida al-Rishawi is not ready for exchange for my life at the Turkish border by Thursday sunset, 29th of January, Mosul time, the Jordanian pilot Mia`dh al-Jasaben (Maaz al-Kassasbeh) will be killed immediately," Goto said according to a SITE transcript.

The latest threat by the ISIS comes after the Jordan government, which is under immense pressure for safe release of the pilot, agreed to the prisoner swap demanded by the extremists.

The Islamic State have already beheaded one of the Japanese hostages, and had just a day ago released a video threatening to kill the surviving captive Kenji Goto Jogo and a Jordanian pilot within 24 hours if the female Iraqi bomber was not freed.

“I have 24 hours to live, the pilot has even less,” said Japanese hostage Kenji Goto in that video.

Earlier, the ISIS had demanded $200 mn within 72 hours from the Japanese government in return for the life of two Japanese hostages. As the Tokyo government failed to pay the sum, the ISIS beheaded one of the hostages named Haruna Yukawa, releasing another threat video.

In what appears to be a new ISIS strategy of pressurising the nations, the extremists have used the surviving journalist to convey their demands of releasing a female Iraqi bomber who is jailed in Jordan.

Jordan is one of the anti-ISIS coalition members that has carried out air strikes against the ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

The US-led anti-ISIS coalition has been launching anti-jihadist airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since September and the Jordanian pilot's plane is the first coalition warplane to have crashed.

 

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