Posted on 11/10/2005 3:42:36 PM PST by Momaw Nadon
AMMAN, Jordan - Thousands of Jordanians rallied in the capital and other cities shouting "Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!" a day after three deadly hotel bombings that killed at least 59 people. Officials suspected Iraqi involvement in the attacks, which were claimed by al-Qaida's Iraq branch.
As protesters in Jordan and elsewhere in the Arab world denounced the Jordanian-born leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, security forces snared a group of Iraqis for questioning and officials said one of the bombers spoke Iraqi-accented Arabic before he exploded his suicide belt in the Grand Hyatt Hotel.
The main demonstration in Amman lasted for more than an hour. But honking vehicles, decorated with Jordanian flags and posters of King Abdullah II, cruised Amman's streets until late in the night, as passengers chanted "Death to al-Zarqawi, the villain and the traitor!" and anti-terrorism slogans.
About 50 people, including Jordanian children holding tiny flags, placed candles on a makeshift sand memorial in the driveway of the Hyatt.
King Abdullah II, a strong U.S. ally, vowed in a nationally televised address to "pursue those criminals and those behind them, and we will get to them wherever they are."
Two Americans were killed and four wounded in the bombings Wednesday evening at the Hyatt, the Radisson SAS and the Days Inn, State Department spokesman Noel Clay said. Two of the wounded were hospitalized.
Significantly, the victims also included some two dozen Palestinians with roots in the West Bank. Among them were 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 hotel bombings could tip Arab sentiment against al-Zarqawi.
In the West Bank village of Silet al-Thaher, members of the Akhras family mourned 13 of their relatives killed during a wedding party at the Radisson.
"Oh my God, oh my God. Is it possible that Arabs are killing Arabs, Muslims killing Muslims? For what did they do that?" screamed 35-year-old Najah Akhras, who lost two nieces in the attack. Similar thoughts were heard over and over throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Al-Qaida in Iraq, which appears to be expanding its operations outside of Iraq, said the bombings put the United States on notice that the "backyard camp for the Crusader army is now in the range of fire of the holy warriors."
But later Thursday, in an apparent response to the protests, al-Zarqawi's group took the rare step of trying "to explain for Muslims part of the reason the holy warriors targeted these dens."
"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," al-Qaida in Iraq said in an Internet statement, the authenticity of which could not be immediately verified.
Al-Zarqawi's group has claimed responsibility for previous attacks in Jordan, including the 2002 assassination of U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley. Jordan, a moderate Arab nation, has fought a long-running battle against Islamic extremists opposed to its 1994 peace deal with Israel.
In addition to the two Americans, the dead included 33 Jordanians, many with families ties to the Palestinian West Bank; six Iraqis; two Bahrainis; at least two Chinese; one Indonesian; and one Saudi. The others had not yet been identified. Officials said the death toll of 59 — which includes the three attackers — could rise because several of the 100 or so wounded victims were seriously hurt.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani condemned the Amman attacks and said they put Jordan on notice against harboring militants.
"Unfortunately there are still some groups in Jordan supporting terrorist criminals, describing them as the resistance, and they are deceived by their claims," Talabani said in Rome.
Two daughters of ousted leader Saddam Hussein now live in Jordan, as do many other wealthy and formerly powerful Iraqis.
"I hope that these attacks will wake up the `Jordanian street' to end their sympathy with Saddam's remnants ... who exploit the freedom in this country to have a safe shelter to plot their criminal acts against Iraqis," Iraqi government spokesman Laith Kubba said.
He also said Iraqis may have had a hand in the attacks.
"The al-Qaida organization has become as a plague that affected Iraq and is now transmitted by the same rats to other countries. A lot of Iraqis, especially former intelligence and army officers, joined this criminal cell," Kubba said.
One of the nearly simultaneous blasts tore through a banquet hall at the Radisson, where 300 guests were celebrating the wedding of the Jordanian-Palestinian couple.
"While I was shooting the pictures, all of sudden I saw a huge explosion, like the explosions we see on television, and people started screaming and pushing their way out of the hall," said wedding cameraman Osaka Rushed al-Saleh, 27. He spoke from his hospital bed, where he was recovering from facial and shoulder injuries.
President Bush said the attackers defiled Islam and the United States would help bring those responsible to justice.
"The killings should remind all of us that there is an enemy in this world that is willing to kill innocent people, willing to bomb a wedding celebration in order to advance their cause," Bush said during a meeting with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
A senior Jordanian security official linked the bombings to Iraq, Jordan's war-ravaged eastern neighbor, saying the Hyatt bomber spoke with an Iraqi accent and that authorities have detained several other Iraqis.
"Indications and initial reports point to Iraqi involvement but we cannot be certain," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was unauthorized to speak to the media.
Security staff patrolling the Hyatt stopped the middle-aged terrorist as he was wandering the lobby. He spoke briefly to the guards before detonating the explosives strapped underneath his Western-style suit, the official said.
The official said authorities made a number of arrests, including Jordanians, Iraqis and other Arabs.
Al-Zarqawi is believed to have trained at least 100 Iraqi suicide bombers as a special martyrdom corps to continue his group's war inside Iraq and possibly elsewhere in the Middle East.
While Jordanian security authorities have extensive networks tracking local militants, keeping tabs on Iraqis is believed to be much harder, particularly because nearly 1 million Iraqis have taken refuge in the country.
Officials from around the world sent condolences to Jordan and its ruler, King Abdullah II, who said his nation was targeted because it was committed to "fighting the terrorists who are killing innocents in the name of Islam."
Within hours of the attacks on the loosely guarded hotels, where there were no metal detectors at the entrances, security was intensified throughout the capital. Armed police patrolled outside hotels, set up checkpoints and randomly stopped vehicles to check them. For more than 12 hours, Jordanian authorities locked down their country's borders to prevent culprits possibly slipping out.
"We will bring them out from their holes and bring them to justice," Abdullah said.
I'm hoping the muslims themselves still have a shred of humanity, enough to see how the salafist clerics are driving the radicals to kill their own people. The best thing for us would be if islam cleans out its own nest. They have killed each other before in huge numbers, here's an example from Jordan not all that long ago:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1037839/posts
The bridegroom was on TV last night, he lost his father and new father-in-law. THIS IS NOT ISLAM is what he said through his tears.
Oh yes it is, I called back at the screen.
Did they care when the towers came down? Did they care when the children of Beslan were murdered? Did they care when the Bali bomb went off killing several hundred? The Madrid train bombs, the bombing in London?
Oh what a tragedy is it when muslims kill muslims...sarc.
I could not exactly make out King Abdullah's words, but he seemed thoroughly pissed, in his address to the nation of Jordan, earlier today.
His security forces could start by arresting EVERY known member of Abu Musab's family, his friends and associates, his milkman, his paperboy, and the guy selling dates from a cart on the street of his boyhood home.
The interrogations and executions could be televised on Al Jazeera just to give Zarqo a sample view of what awaits his sorry a** when he is finally captured.
Crude, but my two-cents.
Actually, I think they don't really mind when Jews and Christians are killed. They are upset about Muslim deaths.
Something about "As ye sow, so shall ye reap." I forget where I heard that.
Actually, no. The dead muslims have been martyred in the eyes of Islam. These attacks are permitted because they aid in the spread of true Islam.
I wish Condi and the Prez could be diplomatic without telling bald-faced lies.
President Bush said the attackers defiled Islam...
The groom seemed to be of the same opinion.
I really don't care what they SAY it's how they fight back that interests me.
Now let's see what the King of Jordan does. I don't think it's gunna be pretty...
He's in pain, so he can't see the meaning in it. If he isn't an apostate or a moderate, he'll come to his senses eventually. You know Islam better than I do. It is half kudzu and half anaconda. Part of it grows innocuously and the other part kills all that resists.
Hypocracy abounds within Islam over their dirty laundry reality that is M.B.
Special U.N. Envoy Lahkdar Brahimi [Algerian Sunni],
Is wisked in to rescue Fallujah from the Crusaders.
Lahkdar rebuffs the U.S. for a heavy hand at Fallujah....while key cell leaders scatter like rats.
L.B. was foriegn minister of Algeria in the 90's...when they slaughtered Muslim Brotherhood in session orgies to the tune of thousands at a time.
But Algerians have yet to match Bashar Assads Father who slaughtered around 20,000 of the M.B. before taking to his comfy chair.
Islam does not want the name *The Muslim Brotherhood to be front and centre in all this terror.
and organized crime does not wish it either.
Jordans King will get what Organized crime sanctions for him.
Its different from the days of Black September when Yasser and company tried to kill his Father and topple the gov.
Jordan required a 1/4 year to drive most of the PLO out...which saw many flee to The Lebanon.
This time....the Key and security belong to Organized crime.
O.C. [Organized Crime] can have all these terror thugs heads on a platter for the right price.
This is a side to Islam...seldom seen.
“Today, the world saw with horror the attacks on innocent people in Jordan by killers who defile a >>>>>great religion<<<<<<,” Bush said.
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=162135724&p=y6zy3643x
President Bush also said:
“The killings should remind all of us that there is an enemy in this world that is willing to kill innocent people, willing to bomb a wedding celebration in order to advance their cause,” Bush said in the Oval Office during a meeting with President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, an ally of the US in the war on terror.
“For those of us who love freedom and for those of us who respect every human life, no matter whether you’re from the west or from your neighbourhood, Mr President, we have an obligation and a duty to remain strong and to remain firm and to bring these people to justice,” Bush said.
(So I guess President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, an ally of the US war on terror, gets to choose who he stands with. The killers, or (as the President continued on to say;)
"...those of us who love freedom and for those of us who respect every human life, no matter whether you’re from the west or from your neighbourhood, Mr President, we have an obligation and a duty to remain strong and to remain firm and to bring these people to justice,” ...)
What do we expect GWB to say? That all 1 billion muslims on the planet are islamofascists and we're going to kill them all?
This is the behave yourself or else position. Come on, we know you can do it, try a little harder...OR ELSE!
Since you are talking with Tomas, ANYTHING is possible to him.
He hasn't been over to the Middle East, he has no idea what it would take to do anything LIKE convert them from Islam.
hehe ask him about the Iraqi Constitution
No thanks, after spending the entire week on the live thread re the 'riots' in France by the 'beur yoots' I'm not in the mood...I just wanted to add the bits to the President's comments that Tomas left out.
Notice that Bush said "A" great religion. Christianity is "THE" great religion. He doesn't HAVE to say it...it's a given.
Islam feeds on the secular-humanists (useful idiots) because of their lack of faith...their atheism...atheism obscures the truth about Islam. Islam has the heart of hatred and destruction and death.
People who erase the other dimension...people who refuse God (to disbelieve is to refuse God)...they view life through a different prism. They are condemned to a vision of life which is linear. They are condemned to a vision of life which is inaccurate...and because of their unwillingness to consider God and just ask Him if He is real...because they cling to self instead of asking if He is real...they (the refuseniks) are doomed to their own choice...they are owned by the master of refuseniks...they have sworn allegiance to the master of self-interest.
Don't forget to ask about your 72 raisons.
The Jordanians are only upset because the terrorists are now killing Muslims. When they were just killing Jews and Americans, the Jordanians didn't care. Sorry, but I don't sympathize unless they atone for their sins.
They sound like Democrats. Say the same thing over and over and finally people will believe it.
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