http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/09/news/jordan.php
Bombers kill dozens in 3 hotels in Amman
The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2005
Suicide bombers carried out nearly simultaneous attacks on three
U.S.-based hotels in the Jordanian capital Wednesday night, killing at least 57
people and wounding more than 300 in what appeared to be an al-Qaida assault on
an Arab kingdom with close ties to the United States and a common border with
Iraq.
The explosions hit the Grand Hyatt, Radisson SAS and Days Inn hotels just
before 9 p.m. One of the blasts took place inside a wedding hall where 300
guests were celebrating. Black smoke rose into the night, and wounded victims
stumbled from the hotels.
''We thought it was fireworks for the wedding but I saw people falling to
the ground,'' said Ahmed, a wedding guest at the five-star Radisson who did not
give his surname. ''I saw blood.
There were people killed. It was ugly.''
A State Department official said there was no information on any American
casualties. The White House said the United States was prepared to offer help
in the investigation.
A U.S. counterterrorism official, who spoke on condition of anonymity,
said the strong suspicion is that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born
leader of the terror group al-Qaida in Iraq, was involved because of his known
animosity for Jordan and the fact that it was a suicide attack, one of his
hallmarks.
In February, U.S. intelligence indicated that Osama bin Laden was in
contact with al-Zarqawi, enlisting him to conduct attacks outside of Iraq,
noted another U.S. counterterrorism official, who also spoke on condition of
anonymity. Jordan has arrested scores of Islamic militants for plotting to
carry out attacks and has also sentenced many militants to death in absentia,
including al-Zarqawi.
Its capital, Amman, has become a base for Westerners who fly in and out
of Iraq for work. The city's main luxury hotels downtown are often full of
American and British officials and contractors enjoying the relative quiet of
the city.
''Obviously this is something Jordan is not used to,'' Jordan's deputy
prime minister, Marwan Muasher, told CNN. ''We have been lucky so far in
avoiding those incidents.'' He said most of the casualties appeared to be
Jordanians. ''Finally, the terrorists succeeded in breaking the security in
Jordan,'' Ayman al-Safadi, editor of Jordan's Al-Ghad newspaper, told
Al-Arabiya satellite network.
The first blast was reported at about 8:50 p.m. at the five-star Grand
Hyatt. The explosion took place in the lobby, an American businessman said, and
shattered its stone entrance.
An Associated Press reporter counted seven bodies being taken away and
many more wounded being carried out on stretchers. Prime Minister Adnan Badran
later arrived at the scene.
A few minutes later and a short distance away, police reported the
explosion at the wedding hall inside the Radisson, with at least five killed
and at least 20 wounded.
The Radisson is popular with American and Israeli tourists and was a
target of several foiled al-Qaida plots, including a conspiracy to attack U.S.
and Israeli tourists during the kingdom's millennium celebrations. Israel's
ambassador to Jordan, Yaakov Hadas, told Israel TV from Amman there were no
reports of Israeli casualties.
The third explosion, at the Days Inn, happened after a car packed with
explosives approached the hotel, Muasher said. He said the car could not cross
a protective barrier so it detonated outside. As a result, the casualties at
the Days Inn were not so extensive as at the other hotels, he said.
Muasher reported 57 killed and at least 300 wounded in the three
bombings, with the worst damage was at the Radisson because the suicide bomber
got inside the wedding party of Jordanians.
In addition to housing Westerners, Amman's hotels also have become a
gathering spot for affluent Iraqis who have fled their country's violence.
Their presence - and money - has caused an economic boom, with high-priced
prostitution also putting in an appearance.
The Grand Hyatt has 316 guest rooms as well as 50 luxury residential
apartments in the adjoining Hyatt Tower. The hotel, with a beige-and-cream
facade and a shiny gold revolving door, is located in the heart of Amman's
business and diplomatic district on Hussein Bin Ali Street.
The Radisson has 260 guest rooms. Its main entrance is covered by a white
portico with several dozen international flags lining the top.
The three hotels have security guards hired from a private Jordanian firm
stationed in the reception areas. Each of the hotels has one or two police cars
guarding the buildings around the clock.
King Abdullah II cut short his official visit to Kazakhstan and was
returning home.
''The hand of justice will get to the criminals who targeted innocent
secure U.S. amphibious assault ship and crashed into a warehouse, killing a
Jordanian soldier. Another missile landed near a Jordanian hospital, and a
third hit a civilians with their cowardly acts,'' he said in a statement.
Security was beefed up across the capital, especially around hotels and
diplomatic missions, police said. Armed policemen and cars patrolled the
streets, and Badran declared Thursday a national holiday - apparently in order
to allow tightened security measures to take hold.
Jordanian authorities have foiled numerous attacks in the kingdom. In
July, prosecutors indicted five Jordanians in an alleged conspiracy to attack
intelligence agents, tourists and hotels in Amman.
U.S. officials believe al-Zarqawi and bin Laden's operations chief, Abu
Zubaydah, were chief organizers of a foiled plot to bomb the Radisson SAS. The
attack was to take place during millennium celebrations, but Jordanian
authorities stopped it in late 1999.
Abu Zubaydah was captured in 2002 in Pakistan.
In August, Iraq's al-Qaida wing claimed responsibility for a rocket
attack that barely missed U.S. warships docked in the Jordanian port of Aqaba.
The Internet statement was signed Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, the spokesman for
Al-Qaida in Iraq, blamed for a rash of kidnappings, killings and attacks
against U.S. forces in Iraq.
Jordanian officials have said the rocket assault carried the hallmarks of
al-Qaida, although the attack also was claimed by the Abdullah Azzam Brigades.
In the Aqaba attack, the most serious against the U.S. Navy since the
2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, one Katyusha rocket flew across the bow
of a taxi on the outskirts of an Israeli airport, but did not explode.
The last major terror attack blamed on Islamic militants was the July 7
bombings of the London transit system that killed 56 people, including four
bombers. The most recent major attack linked to al-Qaida was the Madrid subway
bombings that killed 191 people on March 11, 2004.
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