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Jordan says Iraq-based group behind rocket attack

Posted on: Monday, 22 August 2005, 18:04 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

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