AMMAN, 5 December 2004 — Jordan closed its border crossing with Iraq to all travelers coming from the war-torn country until further notice yesterday, a day after a van exploded at the Iraqi border post of Trebil, police said.
Neither vehicles nor passengers would be allowed through from Iraq, the Jordanian police department said in a statement giving no further details.
On Friday, a van exploded at Trebil, destroying a room often used by US army personnel, witnesses said. Almost simultaneously, an Iraqi-registered civilian car rigged with explosives was detected at Jordan’s Karameh crossing and its two Iraqi occupants arrested.
They were allegedly planning to detonate the car against a convoy of fuel tankers who were waiting for US security to escort them through Iraq.
Meanwhile, two young Italians who were taken hostage in Iraq for three weeks in September have resumed their humanitarian work in Amman, their organization said in Rome Friday.
Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, both 29, were to hold discussions with UN officials in the Jordanian capital and would evaluate the state of the projects on which they were working before their abduction, the non-governmental organization “A Bridge to Baghdad” said.
The Italian government reportedly paid a one-million-dollar ransom for their release, but this has never been confirmed by authorities.
Ignazio la Russa, vice president of the rightist National Alliance, the second party in the government coalition, reacted with anger at the news of the women’s trip to Amman, and made it clear he considered the women were in the region at their own risk.
Sergio Marelli, president of the organization, said the women’s return was a “coherent choice,” since their concern for Iraq had not changed, but by remaining in Amman they were showing that they did not want to take any unnecessary risks.
