Female bomber 'is a beast'

2005-11-14 18:31

Amman - "The woman is a beast," says Tarek Khourma of the Iraqi woman would-be suicide bomber - paraded on Jordanian television to confess her role in Wednesday's hotel bomb carnage in Amman.

For many Jordanians, the chilling three-minute confession by Sajida Mubarak Atrous Rishawi, televised on Sunday, brought a mixture of relief, anger and shock.

Showing no emotion, Rishawi recounted how she and her husband, Ali Hussein al-Shammari, entered Jordan on fake Iraqi passports and, four days later, went to the Radisson SAS hotel to carry out one of three attacks.

Shammari blew himself up at a wedding reception in the hotel ballroom. Rishawi was unable to activate her explosives belt and escaped.

Her arrest on Sunday is a major breakthrough in the probe into the multiple bombings that killed 57 people and wounded about 100 more - the first such attacks in Jordan's history.

Her confession "was some sort of relief, a kind of consolation," said Khourma, whose brother died in the carnage. "It will allow us to direct our anger against someone."

'I saw the people run'

Radisson SAS deputy director Bassam Banna said he was still in shock at the ease with which Rishawi and her husband, fitted with explosives belts, managed to elude hotel security and "mingled with the other guests".

In her confession, Rishawi said she and her husband "each took up a corner" in the hotel ballroom where dozens of guests were gathered for a wedding reception.

"He managed to blow himself up, I tried, but I could not. I saw the people run and flee the hotel and ran out just like them," she said.

The Jordanian authorities identified two other Iraqis as the bombers behind the attacks at the Grand Hyatt and Days Inn hotels The group headed by al-Qaeda's frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has claimed responsibility.

Rishawi's testimony is the second of its kind aired on state television.

In April 2004, the security services broadcast the confession of Azmi Jayussi, accused of masterminding a chemical attack in Jordan.

The Jordanian authorities aired Rishawi's confession on the main evening news in order to reach a large number of Jordanians.

"The message is clear: here we are, we care, we are efficient.

"It is a kind of normalisation," said Mustafa Hamarneh, director of the University of Jordan's Centre for Strategic Studies.

"It proves that the security services can catch people."

'Didn't use a local cell'

That the woman identified herself as an Iraqi appears to have dulled the fears of the Jordanian people that one of them could have had a role in such devastation.

"There's a sense of relief because she's Iraqi and she didn't use a local (terrorist) cell," said Hamarneh.

Not everyone is convinced by Rishawi's confession.

"Nonsense. It is another lie orchestrated by the government to divert our attention from the truth," said an elegantly dressed 50-year-old man, who asked not to be named.

- AFP