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Zarqawi Claims Jordan Blasts, World Condemns
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The
blasts left more than 57 people killed and hundreds wounded.
(Reuters)
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AMMAN,
November 10, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – World
countries Thursday, November 10, strongly condemned Jordan's triple
suicide attacks that left 57 people killed and hundreds injured, with
Al-Qaeda's Iraq branch claiming responsibility for the terrorist
blasts.
Wednesday's
late evening attacks on Jordan, one of the closest US allies in the
Middle East, targeted the luxury Radisson SAS, Grand Hyatt and Days
Inn hotels, which are usually packed with foreigners.
In
the deadliest blast, a suicide bomber blew himself up just after 9:00
pm in a hotel ballroom at the Radisson SAS while a Jordanian wedding
reception was in full swing.
Shortly
afterwards, a suicide bomber also detonated his charge at the entrance
of the Grand Hyatt and a suicide car bomber attacked the three-star
Days Inn in the Rabiyeh neighborhood where the Israeli embassy is
located.
Jordanian
authorities said 57 people were killed in the attacks but the
Doha-based Al-Jazeera channel quoted Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Al-Muasher
as saying that the death toll of the attacks reached 67.
Authorities,
however, said they did not yet have details on all the nationalities.
But
China said Thursday that three Chinese nationals were killed and one
was wounded in the attacks.
Among
those killed in the attacks was also Major General Bashir Nafie,
commander of Palestinian Special Forces and two other senior
Palestinian security officials.
Shock
UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan also "strongly condemned" the
attacks, saying he has delayed a planned visit to Jordan.
"We
do not want to be a burden on the Jordanian authorities 12 hours after
they've had this massive bombing," said spokesman Stephane
Dujarric.
Jordan
was a last-minute addition to Annan's current round of visits that
began in Paris and took him to Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
The
UN Security Council is due to hold a special session Thursday to
condemn the deadly attacks.
US
President George W. Bush also said he condemned "in the strongest
possible terms the vicious terrorist attacks against innocent
civilians in Amman," according to CNN.
"Today's
terrorist bombings in Amman were cowardly attacks on innocent
Jordanians and their guests," Bush said in a White House
statement Wednesday.
US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Amman attacks were a
"great tragedy," Agence France Presse (AFP) said.
"Jordan
has of course been a tremendous fighter and a tremendous ally in the
war on terrorism," she said, reaffirming the close relationship
that has grown between Amman and Washington.
Jordan's
King Abdullah II said the deadly blasts were "terrorist
acts" and pledged that "justice will pursue the
criminals."
"The
terrorist attacks that targeted three hotels in Amman are criminal
acts carried out by terrorist groups," the king, who is visiting
Kazakhstan, said in a statement released by the royal court.
Ireland
and France also expressed shock and sympathy with Jordan following the
attacks.
"While
the facts are not yet clear, I am appalled by these reports. It seems
all too likely that this was a terrorist attack aimed at killing and
maiming entirely innocent people," said Irish Foreign Minister
Dermot Ahern.
French
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin offered his "deep
sympathy... to the families and all the Jordanian people".
Syria
also denounced the attacks, expressing solidarity with the kingdom.
"Syria
vigorously condemns these attacks and expresses its total solidarity
with Jordan," a Syrian foreign affairs official was quoted as
saying by the official SANA news agency.
"We
have painfully learned the news that attacks aimed at hotels lead to
the deaths of innocent people."
Jordan's
Muslim Brotherhood strongly condemned the "terrorist"
attacks, saying the blasts went against the merciful teachings of
Islam.
"These
are criminal and terrorist acts which no Muslim can accept and which
go against our religion," the head of the Brotherhood, Abdel
Majid Zuneibat said after the attacks.
"The
enemies of the nation will only profit from this crime," Zuneibat
said in a statement carried on state-run Petra news agency.
Jordan
Stunned
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The
attacks targeted the luxurious Radisson SAS hotel in central
Amman. (Reuters)
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On
Thursday, schools, businesses and government offices closed as the
stunned kingdom prepared to bury the victims. Jordan closed its
borders in an effort to stop any suspects fleeing, Reuters said.
Police
and some military units threw up roadblocks around hotels and
embassies in the Jordanian capital.
"I
was eating with friends in the restaurant next to the bar when I saw a
huge ball of fire shoot up to the ceiling and then everything went
black," said a French UN official, who was at the Hyatt but who
declined to be identified.
"It
caused absolute devastation."
The
explosion at the Radisson tore through a banqueting room where about
250 people were attending a wedding reception, witnesses said.
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
group of Jordanian-born Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility
for the Wednesday's attacks.
"Our
good lions launched ... a new raid ... in Amman," Zarqawi's
Al-Qaeda Organization in the Land of the Two Rivers said on the
statement.
"After
having studied and monitored the objectives, the sites of the hotels
were chosen," said the statement, which could not be
authenticated, according to AFP.
The
hotels "have been turned by the dictator of Jordan (King Abdullah
II) into a back garden for the enemies of (our) religion, the Jews and
the Crusaders," it said.
The
hotels were "filthy entertainment centers for the traitors and
apostates of the umma (Islamic nation), and a safe haven for the
infidel (US) intelligence services, which are leading their conspiracy
against the Muslims from there.
"Despite
the security measures that the traitor (Abdullah), the son of the
traitor (the late King Hussein), to protect such (sites) ... the
soldiers of Al-Qaeda succeeded in reaching their objectives and
fulfilling them," it said.
Zarqawi,
who comes from the poor town of Zarqa outside Amman, was jailed by
Jordan in 1996 but freed under amnesty by King Abdullah when he
assumed the throne three years later.
Jordan,
one of the most stable countries in the Middle East, is one of only
three Arab states to have diplomatic relations with Israel but also is
the home country of Iraq's most wanted man Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi.
The
Jordanian authorities have in the past broken up a number of Al-Qaeda
linked networks suspected of plotting attacks against US and other
Western targets in Jordan.
Zarqawi,
who has a 25 million dollar bounty on his head, was condemned to death
in absentia in April for the 2002 murder of a US diplomat in Amman.
The
last apparently militant strike in Jordan was rocket attack in August
targeting US warships in the Red Sea port of Aqaba that the
authorities blamed on the Al-Qaeda group led by Zarqawi.
The
rockets missed two US warships docked in the port but one hit a
warehouse killing a Jordanian soldier while another landed across the
border in the neighboring Israeli resort of Eilat.
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