Jordan: 10 men convicted of terror charges executed

Jordan on Saturday (4 March) executed 10 men convicted of terrorism-related offences in one of the biggest rounds of executions carried out since the country launched a major crackdown against Islamic extremists more than two years ago.

Another five people were also executed on the same day for other crimes, including rape, government spokesman Mohammed Momani said in a statement carried by the state news agency Petra. Death penalty was restored in Jordan after a moratorium on it ended in 2014.

Momani said that the men were hanged at Swaqa Prison in central Jordan. He added that the convictions of the 10 men were related to five terrorist incidents that took place in the country – one was a 2003 bombing attack on Jordan's embassy in Iraq. The latest was the shooting of a high-profile writer in the Jordanian capital of Amman in September 2016.

A shooting attack in 2006 on a group of tourists at a Roman theatre in the centre of Amman and the killing of a British man were two other incidents connected to the convictions and subsequent executions, the Associated Press wrote.

Jordan is one of the active members of the US-led coalition group that is currently taking part in the fight against terror outfit Isis in Iraq and Syria. The coalition is assisting local ground forces in the two Middle East nations to drive out the militants from their countries.