Syrian militants linked to Al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, were behind last week's rocket attack on U.S. warships in the Red Sea port of Aqaba, Jordanian security officials said.
| Whoa! Wotta surprise! Didn't see that one coming! |
 Zarqawi's group claimed responsibility for Friday's attack, in which the rockets missed their targets, but hit a warehouse and a hospital, killing a Jordanian soldier, and struck the Israeli port of Eilat. "The security forces have succeeded in dismantling a group linked to a terrorist network coming from Iraq to carry out this crime and arrested the main accused, a Syrian, Mohammad Hassan Abdullah al-Sahli," said an official statement carried on Jordanian television late Monday. "Three other members of the group came to Jordan from Iraq on August 6, including two sons of the Syrian carrying false Iraqi passports and the third, Mohammad Hamid Hassan, an Iraqi," the statement said. Sihly's two sons and Hassan, were believed to have fled to Iraq, the government said, adding the rocket launch was controlled by a timing device. That, it said, allowed Sihly's three accomplices time flee the country before the rockets were fired.
| In that case, they didn't dismantle the cell. They came, they did their business, and they beat it, leaving Pop holding the bag. I thought they had the kids and Hassan in custody? That also explains why the rockets didn't hit squat. They did the same thing Hek's boyz do in Afghanistan, which is set 'em up on a timer and then run away. The only reason they hit anything at all is because they were aiming at a populated area. It would have been hard not to hit anything. |
There was no explanation why Sihly, an Amman resident, did not escape as well. Sihly and his accomplices had conducted a careful survey of sites in Aqaba, according to the government announcement.
| That's what DEBKA said, too... |
"The investigation showed that the terrorist group was in constant touch with its leadership in Iraq during preparation for the attack to keep it abreast on developments," the government statement said.
"Hassan! What're you doing now?"
"We are setting the timers, effendi!"
"Amd what are you doing now?"
"Running, effendi!" |
Security officials said the Syrians had used forged Iraqi passports to enter Jordan, a tightly policed pro-Western kingdom where militant attacks are rare. Yesterday's Internet statement by Al-Qaeda in Iraq, lead by Zarqawi, was the second claim of responsibility and was signed by group spokesman Abu Maysara al-Iraqi. Al-Qaeda in Iraq said it had not issued its claim until five days after the attack "so that the brothers could finish retreating." The first claim of responsibility came from the Abdullah Azzam Brigades shortly after the Katyousha rockets were fired from a warehouse window on a hill overlooking Aqaba.
| "Yeah! We dunnit! It wudn't them!" |
Across Jordan, police continued to track down other possible suspects, including Jordanians, a security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Road blocks were set up throughout Amman, the capital, for the fifth day, and the search appeared to have been widened with additional security forces on the streets and more cars being stopped and searched. |