Jordan executes 10 over links to terrorist groups

The photo taken on October 18, 2005 shows the entrance to Suaga (Suwaqa) prison, south of the Jordanian capital, Amman, where 15 people were executed on March 4, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Jordan has executed 10 people on terror convictions in the largest round of executions in the kingdom in recent memory.

A government spokesman said on Saturday that a total of 15 people were hanged at dawn in Swaqa Prison, located about 75 kilometers south of the capital, Amman, according to a statement carried by the state news agency Petra.

Mohammed Momani said 10 of the people had links to terrorist groups and the five others were executed for other crimes, including incest.

The executions were the largest in scale since Jordan launched a massive crackdown on the followers of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group and other terror outfits two years ago. The crackdown came after Daesh released a video in early 2015 showing a Jordanian pilot being torched to death inside a cage. Jordanian authorities had put to death two people over the video, although the convicts were introduced as having links to al-Qaeda and not Daesh.

The file photo taken on October 18, 2005 shows the gallows at Suaga (Suwaqa) prison, south of the Jordanian capital, Amman, where some 15 people were executed on March 4, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Jordan has also jailed or detained hundreds of people on charges of links to Daesh, including many who reportedly expressed sympathy for the terrorist group via social media websites.

Reports on Saturday said those executed had been involved in six different incidents spanning from 2003 to 2016.

The most recent of the incidents included a March 2016 shootout between police and Daesh terrorists, in which an officer was killed. Another was an attack in June last year on the office of Jordan's intelligence agency that killed five people.

Jordan is a member to the so-called coalition led by Washington that purportedly fights against Daesh in Iraq and Syria.

Some observers say the executions on Saturday could convey a message to the new administration in Washington that Jordan is determined to remain in the US-led coalition.