Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed Friday that four Iraqis, including a husband and wife, carried out the suicide bombings against three Amman hotels, and police arrested 120 Jordanians and Iraqis in the hunt for anyone who might have aided them.
Thousands of Jordanians protested in Amman for a second straight day, condemning the attacks that killed 57 people, excluding the bombers, and denouncing Al Qaeda in Iraq's leader, Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
"Al-Zarqawi, you are a coward! Amman will remain safe!" chanted 3,000 protesters who marched through the capital, past its al-Husseini Mosque after midday prayers.
The toll rose to 57, including two Americans, with the death Friday of Syrian-American filmmaker Mustapha Akkad, the producer of the "Halloween" horror movies. Akkad, 75, of Los Angeles, suffered serious injuries and a heart attack in the Hyatt bombing, which also killed his 34-year-old daughter, Rima Akkad Monla, an American living in Beirut.
The Internet claim by Al Qaeda in Iraq was the third issued since the nearly simultaneous bombings Wednesday night at the Grand Hyatt, Radisson SAS and Days Inn hotels, which were frequented by foreigners, particularly Israelis and Americans, and long were on the group's hit list.
Authorities have not yet said with certainty that Iraqis were involved in the attack, Jordan's deadliest ever, but speculation has been high that al-Zarqawi has been trying to spread his group's influence outside Iraq. Police have said only that three suicide bombers - including one with an Iraqi accent - were behind the attacks.
The Al Qaeda statement said all the bombers "are Iraqis from the land between the two rivers," alluding to Iraq's ancient name, Mesopotamia.
"They vowed to die and they chose the shortest route to receive the blessings of God," it said.
It was not possible to authenticate the claim, but it appeared on a site that has included past Al Qaeda statements, including Thursday's claim of responsibility.
The statement, signed by group spokesman Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, said the four included a woman "who chose to accompany her husband to his martyrdom."
It also threatened Israel, Jordan's western neighbor. The statement noted that Jordan, which it described as Israel's "buffer zone," was now "within range" and "it will not be long before raids by the mujahedeen come" to the Jewish state itself.
It said the attackers selected the hotels after a month of surveillance and wore explosive belts "in order to achieve greater accuracy in hitting the target."
The plot was carried out in response to "the conspiracy against the Sunnis whose blood and honor were shed by the Crusaders and the Shiites" and with the connivance of the Arab League, which is trying to arrange an Iraqi reconciliation conference, the statement said.
It also referred to "revenge for the Sunnis in Qaim," a city along the Iraqi-Syrian border where U.S. and Iraqi forces are conducting an offensive against Al Qaeda -led forces.
The statement identified the attackers by pseudonyms Abu Khabib, Abu Maath, Abu Omeir and the wife of Abu Omeir. The husband and wife attacked the Days Inn, the statement said.
"Those who executed the plan were able to enter the sites after passing through all the security measures of which the descendants of the traitor's dynasty were boasting," the statement said, referring to the Hashemite dynasty of King Abdullah II that rules Jordan.
The statement identified Abu Khabib as the leader, saying he struck in the bar of the Radisson.
"He was followed by Abu Maath, who chose the Hyatt Amman," it said.
Jordanian officials said they had found the remains of three males believed to be the attackers but could not confirm a woman was involved.
Suspicion about the bombers increasingly fell on insurgents fighting U.S. and Iraqi forces across Jordan's eastern border. Al-Zarqawi - sentenced to death in absentia here for terror crimes - is believed to have trained more than 100 Iraqi militants to carry out suicide bombings in Iraq and possibly elsewhere in the Middle East.
In Iraq, Deputy Interior Minister Maj. Gen. Ali Ghalib told The Associated Press "the attack looks like it was an act carried by Al Qaeda and al-Zarqawi or those around him. Whether they are Iraqis or not, we are not sure. But it is not impossible."
Until six months ago, few Iraqis had participated in suicide operations against coalition or Iraqi forces, leaving those missions to foreign Islamic extremists, Ghalib said.
"But these days a bigger number of Iraqis carry out suicide attacks," he said without elaborating.
The 120 detained Friday were mostly Iraqis and Jordanians, a senior police official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
"We don't know if any of them were involved in the attacks or assisted the suicide bombers," he said. "Many may simply be innocent."
The hunt intensified as thousands of Jordanians attended weekly Friday sermons in mosques, which all performed special prayers for the victims.
Along with the prayers were denunciations of al-Zarqawi and anger over the attacks.
"So many of us lost friends but what is coming through the most is the outrage and the disbelief that any group could consider these kind of acts serve larger purposes," Jordan's Queen Noor told CNN.
Many of the 400,000 Iraqis living in Jordan also joined the protests and called for punishing anyone involved in the attacks.
Jordanian security services have extensive networks tracking local militants, but keeping tabs on Iraqis is believed to be much harder since many have lived here for years, have family ties to Jordan and routinely travel between the two countries.
Stung by the Arab condemnations, Al Qaeda purportedly issued another Internet statement Thursday "to explain for Muslims" why they targeted hotels in an Arab capital packed with other Muslims and Western visitors. More than half of those killed in the attacks were Jordanians. Six Iraqis, two Bahrainis and one Saudi Arabian also were among the dead.
"Let all know that we have struck only after becoming confident that they are centers for launching war on Islam and supporting the Crusaders' presence in Iraq and the Arab peninsula and the presence of the Jews on the land of Palestine," the statement said.
It said the hotels were "favorite places for the work of the intelligence organs, especially those of the Americans, the Israelis and some western European countries" for what the group called "invisible battles in the so-called war on terrorism."
The statement also said the hotels were used by NATO as a rear base "from which the convoys of the Crusaders and the renegades head back and forth to the land of Iraq where Muslims are killed and their blood is shed."
Striking a moral tone, the Al Qaeda manifesto said the hotels were a "secure place for the filthy Israeli and Western tourists to spread corruption and adultery at the expense and suffering of the Muslims in these countries."
The statement promised "catastrophic" attacks.
A senior Jordanian security official linked the bombings to Iraq, saying one militant in the Hyatt lobby spoke in an Iraqi accent.
"Indications and initial reports point to Iraqi involvement but we cannot be certain," the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
Jordanian authorities have so far identified 33 Jordanians, many with family ties to the Palestinian West Bank. Among them were 16 members of one Jordanian family with roots in the Palestinian West Bank attending a wedding reception at the Radisson.
Six Iraqis, two Bahrainis, at least two Chinese, one Indonesian, and one Saudi also were killed. Fourteen of the dead have not been identified.
The victims included the West Bank's intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Bashir Nafeh; a diplomat; and a prominent banker. Many Jordanians and Palestinians have supported the Iraqi insurgency, but the bombings could tip Arab sentiment against al-Zarqawi.
Full-page messages of condolence and advertisements placed by Jordanians of all backgrounds pledging allegiance to Jordan's monarch filled Friday newspapers.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan flew to Amman to meet King Abdullah II and the foreign minister. He visited two of the bombed hotels, saying "no ideology ... can justify the vicious killing of innocent civilians." |
BAGHDAD: Iraqi police say gunmen have assassinated a local commander of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in the southern city of Basra.
Security forces have arrested scores of suspects believed to be connected with Wednesday's suicide bombings that were claimed by Al Qaeda in Iraq, informed sources said Friday. âThere were ongoing arrests and we will not hesitate to interrogate any suspected individual,â said a security official. The official refused to state the exact number of arrested suspects or their nationality, but did not deny that those who were rounded up were more than 150.