Zarqawi's tribe disavows him
2005-11-20 16:00
Amman - The prominent Jordanian tribe of al-Qaeda's frontman in Iraq, the fugitive Islamist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, disavowed him in a declaration published in top Jordanian newspapers on Sunday.
The front-page statements by the Khalayhleh-Bani Hassan tribe were published two days after the Jordanian-born Zarqawi defended the November 9 bombings against Amman hotels that killed 59 people, and warned of more attacks.
"We absolutely denounce all terrorist acts adopted by Ahmad Fadel Nazzal al-Khalayleh, alias Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and affirm that we, the sons of the Khalayleh tribe, repudiate him," said the statement, addressed to King Abdullah II.
'We repudiate him until kingdom come'
Zarqawi's brother Sayel Fadel Nazzal al-Khalayleh and MP Mussa al-Khalayleh, a deputy from Zarqawi's hometown Zarqa east of Amman, were among around 60 people who signed the statement.
"We are innocent of all his declarations, actions and reports ... and we repudiate him until kingdom come," the statement said.
The suicide attacks against three luxury Amman hotels were the first of their kind in the kingdom, a key US regional ally regarded as one of the most stable countries in the Middle East.
It was claimed by Zarqawi's al-Qaeda group, which has also carried out many of the bloodiest attacks in neighbouring Iraq and beheadings of hostages, including foreigners.
Addressing King Abdullah the tribe said it "vows allegiance to your throne and to our dear Jordan".
Internet posting
"Anyone who dares to carry out such acts in our kingdom is not Jordanian and has nothing to do with Jordan," it added.
In a voice recording posted on Friday on an internet site, Zarqawi said it had not been al-Qaeda's intention to target the wedding party which suffered the heaviest casualties in the Amman bombings.
"God knows that the decision to target these hotels was taken only after ascertaining that they had become bases for Jewish and America security services," said the voice attributed to Zarqawi.
"If we had wanted to kill innocents as the apostate (Jordanian) regime claims, we would not have resorted to sacrificing the lives of those who got through the security barriers," said the voice whose authenticity could not be verified.
Warning
The audiotape warned Jordanians to stay away from luxury hotels, diplomatic missions of countries which took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and demanded the closure of the US and Israeli embassies in Jordan.
MP Khalayleh told AFP the decision to disavow Zarqawi was not taken because of the tape.
"We decided to repudiate him before the tape emerged and the Khalayleh-Bani Hassan tribe organised on Saturday a rally against terrorism in Awajan," a district in Zarqawi's hometown of Zarqa, he said.
"Targeting civilians is criminal action. It is not part of our traditions or our values and apostasy is unacceptable in Islam," said the MP, who put the number of the Bani Hassan tribespeople at about 350 000.
'Charlatan'
The Jordan Times dismissed Zarqawi as a "charlatan" and said in an editorial Sunday that the audiotape explanation was "unacceptable" since the majority of the bomb victims were Jordanians and Muslims.
Zarqawi is wanted for the 2002 murder of a US diplomat in the Jordanian capital and has a $25m bounty on his head on charges of spearheading the Iraqi insurgency against foreign and Iraqi troops.
In the aftermath of the hotel bombings, thousands of Jordanians have taken to the streets denouncing the attacks.