A vehicle that was damaged in a blast in Paghman, a resort area located some 20 km (12 miles) west of the Afghan capital Kabul, is seen in this August 21, 2005 image taken from television footage. Two U.S. embassy officials were hurt by a roadside bomb that hit their convoy near Kabul on Sunday, a spokesman said. AFGHANISTAN OUT REUTERS/REUTERS TV/Tolo TV
Sun Aug 21, 2005 9:41 AM ET
By Suleiman al-Khalidi
AMMAN (Reuters) - A rocket attack which narrowly missed two U.S. warships in Jordan may be a signal Iraq's al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi has opened a new front against Washington's closest Arab ally, security experts said on Sunday.
The two U.S warships were likely to be carefully chosen targets, the experts said. The vessels are among those that have been regularly docking and unloading supplies in the Red Sea port of Aqaba since the U.S. led the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Jordanian intelligence experts say the attack using Katyusha rockets indicates Zarqawi may favor expanding military attacks to pro-U.S. ally Jordan to hurt Washington's war effort in Iraq.
"Zarqawi appreciates more than ever that by hitting the U.S. military in Jordan he would score not just a symbolic victory but maybe disrupt a hitherto safe supply route for the U.S. army into bases in the western desert (of Iraq)," said one intelligence expert and official who requested anonymity.
Jordan denies providing logistical backing to Washington's military campaign though the U.S. military have said in briefings it has used the country as a main supply route.
Friday's attack missed the USS Ashland and its sister ship the USS Kearsage and was the most serious on U.S. targets in the staunchly pro-Western kingdom since the killing of U.S. diplomat Lawrence Foley in Amman in 2002.
"This is the first time they actually penetrated in a well coordinated military operation. Zarqawi will have learned from this how to conduct a military operation in Jordan even if it missed its target...," one security official said.
The incident has stoked fears in a tightly policed country that has not seen the kind of attacks on tourist resorts and Westerners that have taken place elsewhere.
"The possibilities now exist of an increase in terror attacks and wider targets. It's unavoidable we have now become targeted like Saudi Arabia and Egypt," said Mahmoud Kharabsheh, a prominent deputy and a former senior intelligence official.
The last major attempt by Zarqawi's group last year was a plot to wage a chemical attack using suicide bombers against government and U.S. targets in the kingdom.
Audio tapes purportedly from Zarqawi have vowed to punish Jordan's rulers for "aiding the treacherous enemy America."
Security sources say Jordanian militants, who have become battle hardened in Iraq, may have brought their first hand fighting skills closer to home.
"It's premature to tell now but if the attackers trained in Iraq then this could be a very dangerous turn. We have so far only seen Jordanian militants heading to Iraq and blowing themselves up in suicide bombings," one former minister with ties to the intelligence community said.
Jordanian security officials say several hundred die-hard militants with links to other radical Arab groups have entered Iraq via Jordan and Syria since the U.S. invasion.