Jordanians targeted in blasts

2005-11-13 17:34

Washington - Jordan's King Abdullah II said on Sunday that last week's suicide attacks by a group of Iraqis were aimed at Jordanians - not foreigners.

Abdullah said the three hotels chosen by the al-Qaida cell members were frequented by Jordanians and Iraqis.

"This was nothing to do with the West. This targeted Jordanian citizens - innocent men, women and children," the king said on NBC's Meet the Press.

Jordanian police said on Sunday that they've captured an Iraqi woman who failed to detonate her explosives inside one of the hotels blown up by three other al-Qaeda cell members, including her husband, on Wednesday.

The woman was identified as the sister of Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's former right hand man in Iraq's volatile Anbar province.

Abdullah said that "all Jordanians are unified, in that they want the people who are responsible for these crimes to be brought to justice".

He said that "if we know where they are, even if it's beyond the borders of Jordan, we will give it the best shot possible to bring these people to justice."

In response to a question about polls that suggested support in Jordan for Islamic extremism and an unfavourable attitude toward the United States, the king said Jordanians were against attacks on civilians.

"The majority of the country poured out to denounce what Zarqawi and al-Qaeda did, calling for Zarqawi to be brought to justice, for him to burn in hell," Abdullah said.

He said that Jordan is "suffering from the effects" of the US-led Iraq war, "but we are all hoping, I think as is everybody in the world, that at the end of the day Iraq will be part of the international community".

"Iraq needs to succeed ... if the Middle East will succeed."

The involvement of al-Zarqawi in the hotel bombings indicates that the feared terrorist or his leaders have deadly designs and abilities beyond war-ravaged Iraq's borders.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq had already claimed responsibility for the bombings, which it said it launched to strike at Jordan's support for the United States and other Western powers, and because it accused Jordan of defiling Islam.

Al-Zarqawi has been sentenced to death in absentia in Jordan for terror-related crimes there.

He has vowed to topple the kingdom's moderate Hashemite rulers.

- AP