AMMAN, 3 March 2004 — Jordan is questioning suspects who may have been ordered by a suspected top Al-Qaeda operative to carry out attacks in the kingdom, an official newspaper said yesterday.
Jordan’s leading newspaper, Al-Rai, said the suspects, who were arrested this week, “are members of Al-Qaeda and the group tried to carry out a terrorist act under orders from the prime suspect in terrorist cases, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi.”
Zarqawi is a Jordanian accused by Washington of trying to spark civil war between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq. He was sentenced to death in absentia by a Jordanian court for plotting attacks against US and Israeli targets in the kingdom.
The Al-Rai report followed several days of security alerts involving suspects apprehended or explosives seized. A senior security source said on Thursday Jordan had seized a truck carrying explosives. That came one day after officials announced they had uncovered a group planning attacks in the kingdom and arrested some suspects now under interrogation. Three others escaped, officials said, and state television has run their pictures on every news bulletin, appealing to Jordanians to give police information on their whereabouts.
Meanwhile, newspapers in Jordan quoted unnamed sources as saying authorities were searching for two cars carrying explosives that entered the kingdom from neighboring Syria. “We have good descriptions of the vehicles in question and information on the wanted suspects,” an unnamed senior official told The Jordan Times.
The paper said the cars carrying explosives “were driven into the kingdom from Syria”. Jordan’s long desert border with Syria is patrolled by both sides, but smugglers slip through.
Government spokeswoman Asma Khader said yesterday she could not comment while the investigation was ongoing but an official statement would be issued in the coming few days.
“We earlier reported seizing some people who had explosives, but I can give no further details at the time being,” Khader told Reuters. Security sources were unavailable for comment. Security has been tightened around the capital Amman.
Police also set up checkpoints to stop and check cars, and Khader said “all possible security measures” had been taken to protect the public. “A number of individuals suspected of links to a terrorist group were arrested on Tuesday and Wednesday, while others are on the run and we are searching for them,” she said.
