Katyusha attack targeted U.S. warships
Photo: AP
Jordan: Syrians behind rocket attack
Interior Minister Awni Yarfas says militants linked to al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, were behind last week's failed attack on U.S. warships in Red Sea port of Aqaba
Syrian terrorists linked to al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, were behind last week's rocket attack on U.S. warships in the Red Sea port of Aqaba, Jordan's Interior Minister Awni Yarfas said on Tuesday.
Zarqawi's Sunni Muslim group claimed responsibility for Friday's attack, in which the rockets missed their targets but hit a warehouse and a hospital, killing a Jordanian soldier, and struck the Israeli port of Eilat.
Katyusha Attack
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An Internet statement said those who had carried out the strikes had "Withdrawn ... and returned safely to their base".
"We know for certain it is Al Qaeda and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who were behind the attack. Our interrogations revealed this.
Their goal is to destabilize Jordan and spread terror even if they camouflage this with alleged political goals," Yarfas told Reuters.
Jordanian officials identified the suspects as an Iraqi named Mohammed Hameed Hassan, also known as Abu Mukhtar, and a Syrian named Mohammed Hassan Abdullah al-Sahli and his two sons.
The officials, who asked not to be named, said Sahli had been part of an al Qaeda sleeper cell in Amman. He was arrested shortly after his sons, Abdullah and Abdul-Rahman, fled across the border to Iraq with Hassan on Friday.
Katyusha rockets smuggled into Jordan from Iraq
They said the Syrians had used forged Iraqi passports to enter Jordan, a tightly policed pro-Western kingdom where terror attacks are rare.
Another security source said the four-member group had received direct orders from Zarqawi, a Jordanian who has led a campaign of bombings and kidnappings in post-war Iraq.
The attack was the most serious on U.S. Targets in Jordan since the 2002 killing of American diplomat Lawrence Foley in Amman. A Jordanian court has convicted Zarqawi in absentia for Foley's shooting and sentenced him to death.
Amman has received several warnings in recent months that al Qaeda planned to attack the port of Aqaba, which handles many supplies for U.S. Forces in Iraq, security sources said.
They said the three missiles fired in Friday's attack were among seven Katyusha rockets smuggled into Jordan from Iraq by car two weeks earlier. The other four were found abandoned.
A Jordanian source said Amman was concerned about signs that Syria had become a conduit for anti-U.S. fighters heading to Iraq - as U.S. officials complain - but said there was no proof the Damascus government condoned such activities.
