Free Republic

IRBID, Jordan (AFP) - Jordanian security forces have killed a suspected Al-Qaeda militant and captured another in a shootout in northern Jordan, state-run television reported and security officials said. Some security forces were hurt in the operation lasting more than four hours, in which intelligence agents and police took part after a tip-off that Al-Qaeda militants were plotting attacks in Jordan, reports said Tuesday. "An Al-Qaeda terrorist was killed and another was captured in Advertisement Irbid", around 90 kilometers (56 miles) north of the Jordanian capital Amman, television said quoting a security official. The suspect killed was identified as Suleiman...

AMMAN, Jordan -- Jordan charged 16 Islamic militants on Sunday with plotting terror attacks, including strikes against the U.S. and Israeli embassies in Amman. The suspected cell members were detained between August and September, but details about the allegations against them, surfaced only after they were charged at the office of Jordan's military prosecutor. One of the suspects remains at large. The men, led by 50-year-old Jordanian Abed al-Tahawi, were charged with conspiring to carry out the attacks and illegal possession of automatic weapons, a court official said. A military prosecutor accused the defendants of plotting attacks against the U.S....

AMMAN, Jordan (Reuters) - Jordanian state television aired Monday what it said were confessions by captured militants tied to al Qaeda who said they had planned deadly chemical attacks that could have killed thousands of people. Authorities had already reported the plot earlier this month, but the confessions shown on a prime-time broadcast provided further details of the planned attacks. The arrested militants, who included Syrians, said they were ordered by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, accused by Washington of being a top al Qaeda supporter, to attack targets that included the heavily fortified U.S. embassy and intelligence headquarters. The head of...