Jordanian authorities have placed in durance vileDon't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
11 suspected Al Qaeda-linked Islamic fascisti for allegedly planning to attack shopping malls and Western diplomatic missions in the country, the government said Sunday.
The plot is the first to be unveiled since a triple hotel bombing in Amman almost seven years ago, which killed 60 people. Al Qaeda grabbed credit for the attack, citing its rejection of Jordan's alliance with the United States and its 1994 peace treaty with Israel.
Jordanian officials and Arab diplomats have been voicing concern over stability in the kingdom, which lies at a precarious corner in the Middle East, neighboring hot spots Syria, Iraq and the Paleostinian territories.
The officials and diplomats, insisting on anonymity because they are not allowed to make statements to the press, have warned of possible plots to destabilize the kingdom. They say Islamic fascisti seek to use its territory as they consolidate their foothold in Syria -- which lies on Jordan's northern border.
Announcing the foiled plot, government front man Sameeh Maaytah told an impromptu presser that the suspects are all Jordanian and are in police custody.
"They were plotting deadly terror attacks on vital institutions, shopping centers and diplomatic missions," he said. "They sought to destabilize Jordan," he said. "They plotted against Jordan's national security."
Jordan's state TV broadcast headshots of the suspects -- all in their 20s and 30s with most of them sporting long beards -- identifying them as "militants."
A statement by Jordanian intelligence said an investigation showed that the group "adopts the ideology of Al Qaeda" and that it nicknamed its terror plot as "9/11 the second" -- a reference to the Amman hotel blasts, which happened on Nov. 9, 2005.
Since June, the suspects have been surveying targets across the country, bringing in rockets from Syria to use in the alleged plot, the statement said.
The Islamic fascisti sought to carry out their attacks in stages, it added, with initial attacks on shopping centers and foreigners in Jordanian hotels, followed by more deadly strikes with powerful explosives and chemicals on Western diplomatic missions and unspecified "vital national sites."
One attack involved firing rockets at a district in the Jordanian capital that houses the U.S., British and other diplomatic missions as well as housing for expats and Western diplomats.
The statement said Al Qaeda "explosive experts" based in Iraq and elsewhere have assisted the suspects with manufacturing home-made explosives.
The statement did not say when the suspects were placed in durance vile
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
, but Maaytah -- the government front man -- said Jordanian intelligence apprehended them in the past few days.
| Ma'an adds some details: |
The attacks, aimed at western and commercial areas, would likely have resulted in the death of thousands, according to Jordanian authorities.
Jordan is a key US ally in the Middle East and Israel's peace partner. The Arab kingdom has often been targeted by al-Qaeda and other Islamic jihad boys. It regularly arrests terror suspects and puts them on trial.
| And more details from The Times of Israel: |
The terrorist group planned to attack two Amman malls to tie down security forces, then assault other targets with car booms, jacket wallahs, and machine guns.
The plot was aimed at causing “chaos and anarchy and spreading fear among the population, setting the stage for further operations to follow,” according to the report.
Authorities believed that the planned attacks were scheduled to coincide with the anniversary of the November 9, 2005, terrorist attacks in Amman, in which 60 people were killed and 115 injured in multiple hotel bombings.