Al-Qaeda claims Jordan bombings, threatens more attacks

AMMAN, Nov 11 (AFP) - A husband and wife were among four Iraqi suicide
bombers who launched fatal attacks on three hotels in Amman this week,
Al-Qaeda said Friday, threatening even more attacks on Jordan, a close US
ally.

Two days after the bombings, which killed 57, wounded nearly 100 and jolted
a country long expecting to be targeted by Islamic militants, Jordanians
took to the streets in noisy demonstrations of unity and a rejection of
terrorism.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq, headed by fugitive Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said
four Iraqis carried out the suicide bombings of the three luxury hotels.

"All the members of the group were Iraqis," said an Internet statement,
whose authenticity could not be verified.

"The group charged with planning, preparing and implementing (the attacks)
was made up of three men: commanders Abu Khabib, Abu Muaz and Abu Omaira.
Their fourth was the venerable sister Om Omaira.

"Om Omaira chose to follow her husband, Abu Omaira, on the path of a
martyr."

A hospital source said the head of a woman believed to be a suicide bomber
had been found among the remains of victims at one hotel.

"We received a woman's head and mangled body remains," the source said.
"This usually is the case when you are dealing with a suicide, the body is
ripped apart and often the head is intact."

The Al-Qaeda statement boasted that the perpetrators got into the targeted
sites "passing through the security measures that are the pride of that
lackey of the English, the traitor and descendant of the line of traitors
(Jordanian King) Abdullah II."

It also threatened more attacks on Jordan, which was created after World War
I under a British mandate, gaining its independence in 1946.

"Let the Jews know that the wall of separation (meaning the Kingdom of
Jordan) that they built east of the Jordan River during the British Empire
is now in the firing line of (Islam's) arms.

"The attacks of the mujahedeen (holy warriors) will hit them soon, and will
be just the first raindrops in a downpour."

Wednesday's attacks ignited a wave of global revulsion. UN chief Kofi Annan,
on a visit to Amman Friday, condemned the bombings and declared that "no
ideology can justify the killing of innocent people."

The authorities closed a border crossing to Iraq in a bid to stop suspects
from leaving.

"No one can leave Jordan for Iraq from Karameh (the only land crossing),"
Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Moasher told reporters. "But all other border
crossings are open."

He told a press conference that 12 people, some of them Jordanian, had been
arrested and were considered suspects.

Hundreds of people of differing nationalities have been detained for
questioning since the blasts but many have since been released, according to
another Jordanian official.

A senior official also said security staff at two of the hotels, the Grand
Hyatt and Days Inn, told investigators they had spoken to two of the
suspected assailants just before the bombings.

"They were curious about the way they were dressed," the official told AFP.

"These short conversations are important particularly because one of them
spoke with an Iraqi accent while the other had an Arab Gulf accent, which
could also be Iraqi."

Earlier, Jordanians packed into mosques for Friday noon-time prayers for the
dead.

In Amman, several thousand people staged a march and rally -- called by
trade unions and opposition groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood -- in a
spirited expression of unity.

"This has united the Jordanian people -- do you you see all these Jordanian
flags everywhere?" said 20-year-old university student Abdullah Abu Rumman.

"We forget everything about our origins -- Palestinians, Jordanians, Arabs.
We're all together now."

About half the Jordanian population is of Palestinian origin.

"We're standing with our government," declared Kamel Dib, a 76-year-old
tailor who was watching the rally. "This is our land."

King Abdullah II attended prayers at Al-Hashimiyah mosque, where the imam
denounced the perpetrators of the attacks as "ignorants" whose "actions are
totally banned by Islam."

The king vowed Thursday to track down those responsible for the carnage. He
said his country, not only a staunch US ally but also only the second Arab
nation to have made peace with Israel, would not be "blackmailed" into
changing its policies.

As night fell young Jordanians drove at high speed through the streets of
the capital, horns blaring as they waved Jordanian flags and held up
pictures of the king.

Woman bomber makes confession

Yahoo/Reuters ^ | 11/13/2005 | Suleiman al-Khalidi

Back to Story - Help Woman bomber makes confession By Suleiman al-Khalidi 12 minutes ago

An Iraqi woman in Jordanian custody said in a televised confession on Sunday she had tried to blow herself up alongside her husband in an Amman hotel last week, one of three attacks that killed more than 50 people.

"We went into the hotel. He (my husband) took a corner and I took another. There was a wedding in the hotel. There were women and children," the woman, who police identified as Sajida al-Rishawi, said on Jordan's state-run television.

"My husband executed the attack. I tried to detonate and it failed. People started running and I ran with them," Rishawi, wearing a white headscarf, black gown and what looked like a bomb strapped to her body said during a brief recorded television appearance.

Three suicide bombers belonging to al Qaeda in Iraq killed more than 50 people at three luxury Amman hotels on Wednesday, in one of Jordan's worst attacks.

Officials said Rishawi's husband was a bomber who died in one of three simultaneous attacks at the Hyatt, Radisson and Days Inn hotels.

It was not clear under which circumstances Rishawi gave her confession. She spoke with an Iraqi accent and said she came from the Iraqi city of Ramadi.

International human rights groups say Jordanian police extract confessions from detainees under duress, but the woman spoke calmly. At one point she was shown standing up and modeling with what looked like a bomb strapped to her body.

Officials said Rishawi is the sister of Samir Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi, a now-dead former senior aide to Jordanian-born al Qaeda in Iraq leader, Abu Musab al Zarqawi. Al Qaeda in Iraq has claimed responsibility for the bombings.

Al Qaeda in Iraq said in an Internet statement that a married couple and two other men -- all Iraqis -- had carried out the bombings at hotels frequented by Western security contractors who operate out of Iraq and by diplomats.

Most of those who died were Jordanians attending weddings.

Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister Marwan al-Muasher told reporters all four bombers were from Iraq's western desert province of Anbar, a Sunni guerrilla stronghold bordering Jordan. Ramadi is the capital of Anbar province.

He said the attackers entered Jordan four days before the blasts, rented an apartment at a middle-class neighborhood in Amman and used suicide belts packed with 5-10 kg (11-22 lbs) of explosives.

Muasher named the three dead bombers as Safar Mohammed Ali, Rawad Jasim Mohammed Abid and Rishawi's husband as Ali Hussein al-Shimeri. He played down any Jordanian involvement.

ANTI-TERROR LEGISLATION

Hundreds of anti-riot police beefed up security at hotels and shopping malls across Amman. Interior Minister Awni Yarfas said the government would tighten anti-terrorist laws.

"We are speeding up passing an anti-terror law soon to indict anyone who supports terror either through advocacy and incitement either by word or action," he told Reuters.

Jordan, a close U.S. ally and one of two Arab nations to have peace treaties with Israel, had previously been spared al Qaeda-linked attacks that have hit other countries.

But authorities had warned that Zarqawi, who has a $25 million bounty on his head, had sent jihadists to strike targets outside Iraq, including Jordan.

Jordan is home to a large exiled Iraqi community, many of whom fled the war and its aftermath to settle here, creating a real estate boom that has boosted Jordan's aid-dependant economy. It is also a hub for Iraq's reconstruction efforts.

But Amman's support for the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq has angered some Jordanians, many of whom are of Palestinian origin and are against U.S. policies in the region.

The blasts have sparked outrage in this small kingdom of about five million people. A few thousand people held a candle-light vigil outside the Hyatt on Saturday and chanted support for the King.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is touring the Middle East and Asia, was expected to make a previously unscheduled stopover in Jordan on Monday.