Posted on 11/13/2005 9:38:07 AM PST by 1066AD
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.
(Additional reporting by Ibon Villelabeitia and Dina Wakeel)
Oh I'm with you now.....
Thought for a second there...you were advocating "sensitivity training"....(g)
Carry on.....
Yes, it is far more humane to allow suicide bombers to blow up wedding parties, than to humiliate or unduly stress them in interrogations.
OK. somebody explain this story to me as it is unclear.
Is this an Al-Qaeda produced video (in which case it's an attempt to hype a new threat) or something from the Jordanian police (which would raise the question: WHY IS SHE STILL WEARING THE BOMB-BELT?)
Maybe it's a show for Jordanian officials to hook her back up, but the story doesn't say she's been arrested, is in custody, or anything at all informative.
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