Al-Zarqawi claims Jordan al-Qaida attack
(AP)
Updated: 2005-08-24 09:05

Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed Tuesday it had reached across the border into Jordan again to carry out the weekend Katyusha rocket attack that narrowly missed a U.S. warship in the Red Sea port of Aqaba, AP reported.

Jordanian authorities, after capturing a Syrian who was labeled a prime suspect in the attack, said it appeared a number of others had fled to Iraq.

The Internet statement by al-Qaida in Iraq, lead by Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was the second claim of responsibility and was signed by group spokesman Abu Maysara al-Iraqi. It was impossible to authenticate the claim.

Al-Zarqawi is a key figure in the insurgency in Iraq and the second most-wanted terrorist on the U.S. list after al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden.

Al-Qaida in Iraq said it had not issued its claim until five days after the attack "so that the brothers could finish retreating."

"God has enabled your brothers in the military wing of the al-Qaida in Iraq to plan for the Aqaba invasion a while ago," the statement said. "After finishing the preparations and deciding on the targets, your brothers launched the rockets."

Jordanian security officials declined to speculate who was behind the attack, although some officials had previously noted it bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida.

Tuesday night Interior Minister Awni Yirfas said: "The investigation shows a link to al-Zarqawi." He also said Jordan was studying the possibility of seek the extradition of those who fled to Iraq.

The first claim of responsibility came from the Abdullah Azzam Brigades shortly after the Katyusha rockets were fired from a warehouse window on a hill overlooking Aqaba. That group also claimed responsibility for the July 23 bomb attacks that killed at least 64 people at Egypt's Sharm el-Sheik resort complex on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula.

Late Monday, the Jordanian government announced the capture of Mohammed Hassan Abdullah al-Sihly, the Syrian whom it called the "main element" in a four-man terror cell affiliated with an Iraq-based militant group it did not name. He was arrested in Amman.

Al-Sihly's two sons and the alleged Iraqi leader of the group, identified as Mohammed Hamid Hussein, were believed to have fled to Iraq, the government said, adding that the rocket launch was controlled by a timing device. That, it said, allowed al-Sihly's three accomplices time flee the country before the rockets were fired. There was no explanation why al-Sihly, an Amman resident, did not escape as well.

Across Jordan police continued to track down other possible suspects. Road blocks were set up throughout Amman, the capital, for the fifth day Tuesday, and the search appeared to have been widen with additional security forces on the streets and more cars being stopped and searched.

Friday's attack in Aqaba, the government said, was carried out with seven Katyusha rockets smuggled from Iraq in the modified gasoline tank of the assailant's Mercedes sedan. Three rockets were fired and seven left behind as the four men left Aqaba for Amman, with three of the group making back to Iraq.

In the attack, the most serious against the U.S. Navy since the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen which killed 17 servicemen, one rocket flew across the bow of a U.S. amphibious assault ship and crashed into a warehouse, killing a Jordanian soldier. Another missile landed near a Jordanian hospital, and a third hit a taxi on the outskirts of an Israeli airport, but did not explode.