AKIPRESS.COM - Jordan has offered a prisoner swap to the Islamic State of the Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in an attempt to save a Jordanian air force pilot who the fighters captured and have threatened to kill along with a Japanese hostage, reports Aljazeera.

Mohammed al-Momani, Jordanian government spokesperson, said on Wednesday that Jordan is ready to trade Sajida al-Rishawi, an Iraqi woman convicted of involvement in deadly Amman hotel bombings in 2005, for Moaz al-Kasasbeh, the pilot.

Efforts to release Kasasbeh and Kenji Goto, a journalist, gained urgency with the release late on Tuesday of a purported online ultimatum claiming ISIL would kill both hostages within 24 hours if Rishawi was not freed.

By Wednesday evening, however, there was no word on the fate of the hostages and no sign that a swap was under way.

Momani made no mention of Goto, and it was not clear if the swap proposed by Jordan would satisfy the hostage-takers.

In his brief statement, Momani only said Jordan is willing to swap Rishawi for Kasasbeh, but not if such an exchange is being arranged.

Rishawi was sentenced to death for her involvement in the al-Qaeda attack in the Jordanian capital that killed 60 people.