Jordan says Iraq-based group behind rocket attack

By Suleiman al-Khalidi

AMMAN (Reuters) – Jordan has arrested a Syrian accused of
involvement in last week’s rocket attack on U.S. warships in
the Red Sea port of Aqaba which was carried out by an
Iraq-based group, state television reported on Monday.

Three of the attackers escaped over the border into Iraq on
Friday — the day of the attack — using forged Iraqi
passports, the television said, quoting a government spokesman.

“The security forces have successfully uncovered this crime
as it has become clear the terror group is linked to one of the
terrorist groups that have come to Iraq to execute the crime,”
state television quoted an official spokesman as saying.

Mohammed Hassan al-Sahli, a Syrian who lives in Amman, was
believed to be a main suspect who helped three militants who
came from Iraq to execute the mission, state television said.

“The terrorist group coming from Iraq and in liaison with
al-Sahli went to Aqaba for reconnaissance after disclosing to
him they were assigned by the terrorist group operating in Iraq
to undertake the terrorist operation in Aqaba,” the spokesman
said.

The television did not name the Iraq-based group purported
to have carried out the attack, in which the rockets missed the
U.S. warships but killed a Jordanian soldier.

Security sources have said that attack bore the hallmarks
of Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network.

Friday’s attack was the most serious on U.S. targets in the
staunchly pro-Western kingdom since the killing of U.S.
diplomat Lawrence Foley in Amman in 2002.

AL QAEDA FOOTPRINTS

A senior Jordanian security source told Reuters Iraq’s al
Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian who has led a
campaign of bombings and kidnappings in post-war Iraq, was
behind the Aqaba attack but did not elaborate.

“The interrogations have proven beyond doubt the terrorist
group that prepared the operation was in constant touch with
Zarqawi in Iraq before and after the execution of the
operation,” the source said.

Another Intelligence expert said Zarqawi’s move to smuggle
rockets into Jordan was a “grave development” that indicated he
had now opted to expand military attacks to pro-U.S. ally
Jordan to hurt Washington’s war effort in Iraq.

Seven Katyusha rockets were brought from Iraq and hidden in
the fuel storage tank of a Mercedes car that crossed the
Iraqi-Jordanian border legally to undertake the operation, the
government spokesman said.

The authorities say three rockets were fired from an
warehouse in the industrial zone near the port city of Aqaba at
two U.S. Navy ships.

The warehouse had been leased by the three Iraqi based
militants and their Syrian accomplice a week earlier.

They missed their targets and instead hit a port terminal
warehouse and a hospital, killing a Jordanian soldier, and
struck the Israeli port of Eilat.

The incident has stoked fears in a tightly policed country
that has not seen the kind of attacks on tourist resorts and
Westerners that have taken place elsewhere.

A senior Jordanian official said the rocket attack could be
a precursor to wider operations by the Jordanian militant to
destabilize a country lending crucial logistics and
intelligence support for Washington’s operations in Iraq.