Prove abducted pilot still alive: Jordan tells IS

Amman, Jan 29: Jordan said on Wednesday that it wants the Islamic State (IS) to prove that the Jordanian pilot abducted by the militant group last month was still alive.

"Jordan has asked the Islamic State (IS) to provide a proof of life for the Jordanian pilot it captured last year (December 2014), but we have not received a reply," Jordan's Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said in a statement, according to a Xinhua report.

Earlier in the day, the Jordanian government said it was willing to swap Sajida Rishawi, an Iraqi suicide bomber, with captured pilot Muath Kasasbeh.

Relatives of the pilot on Wednesday pressed the government to respond positively to the IS demands.

On Tuesday, the IS threatened to kill a Japanese hostage and the Jordanian pilot within 24 hours if the female suicide bomber was not released.

Japanese freelance journalist Kenji Goto, held hostage by the IS, appeared in an online video on Tuesday, asking the Japanese government to exercise pressure on Jordan to hand over Rishawi, a suicide bomber who, in 2005, failed to detonate an explosive belt she was wearing and was later arrested and sentenced to death.

Rishawi is an Iraqi woman who has close ties with Abu Musab Zarqawi, the former leader of the Al Qaeda cell in Iraq.

IANS