Jordan vows to do ‘everything’ to save life of pilot after Goto beheading

Jordan vowed on Sunday to do all it could to save an airman held by the Islamic State group after the jihadists killed a Japanese journalist they had been holding. King Abdullah II said “all efforts in Jordan are being exploited to seek the release of the hero pilot Maaz Kassasbeh,” captured by IS after his plane crashed in Syria in December, a royal court statement said. The king, who spoke by telephone with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, denounced Goto’s murder, branding the killing a “cowardly, criminal act”, and offered his condolences to his family. Safi Kassasbeh, the father of pilot Maaz al-Kassasbeh, also denounced the killing of Kenji Goto and said the Jordanian “government is responsible” for his son’s fate.

Maaz is our son and a son of the military, and the government is responsible for him.

Safi Kassasbeh, who has urged Jordan to secure his son’s release “at any price”

Government spokesman Mohammed al-Momeni pledged Jordan would “do everything it can to save the life and secure the release” of Kassasbeh. IS has been demanding the release of an Iraqi jihadist on death row in Jordan in exchange for Kassasbeh’s life, and Amman said it would hand her over if given proof that he is still alive. Momeni said all state organisations had been mobilised to secure proof of life.

World Kenji Goto