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10 executed for attacks linked to Islamic extremism

Published:Saturday | March 4, 2017 | 2:15 PM
AP
In this file photo, relatives of Jordanian writer Nahed Hattar hold up signs protesting his death, in front of Jordanian Prime Ministry in Amman. Nahad Hattar, the writer, had been on trial for posting a cartoon deemed offensive to Islam on social media when an assailant killed him.

AMMAN (AP):

Jordan yesterday executed 10 prisoners with ties to Islamic extremism who allegedly carried out five shootings and a bombing since 2003.

It was the largest round of executions in the kingdom in at least a decade.

Among those killed in the attacks were a British tourist, an outspoken Jordanian critic of Islamic extremism and members of the Jordanian security forces.

Yesterday's executions were the first since pro-Western Jordan launched a crackdown on Islamic militants two years ago, in response to the killing of a captured Jordanian fighter pilot by the Islamic State group.

Jordan is a part of a US-led military coalition against IS, which holds territory in Syria and Iraq.

Government spokesman Mohammed Momani said the prisoners were hanged at dawn yesterday at the Swaqa Prison. He claimed all the persons executed had links to Islamic extremism.

Momani said the executions signal that "those who commit terrorism and threaten our national security will find the same destiny".

Five others were hanged yesterday for other crimes, including incest, Momani said in a statement carried by the state news agency Petra.

The assailants executed yesterday including a man convicted of the September 2016 shooting of local writer Nahed Hattar on the steps of an Amman courthouse.