AMMAN: Jordan pledged Thursday that it would continue its fight against terrorism “wherever it is and at any time.”
The assertion was made by an anonymous senior official in an interview with Jordan Times a week after the mysterious death of one of Jordan’s top intelligence officers, Capt. Ali bin Zeid, in Afghanistan on Dec. 30.
“We will not wait for terrorists to strike us as they did in 2005 when they targeted three of Amman’s hotels”, killing scores and injuring many others, the official told the pro-government newspaper. “Jordan will not spare any effort to hunt and track down terrorists wherever they are and work to dry up their resources.”
The Jordanian official contended that Jordanian efforts in fighting terrorism were key in bringing peace, security and stability to the country, the region and the world as a whole, as “terrorism does not distinguish between nationalities and has no religion or identity”. He cited Jordan’s cooperation in hunting the Jordanian fugitive Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, who was killed in a US air strike in Iraq in 2006. The official’s remarks coincided with affirmation by the authorities that there was no evidence that the perpetrator of the suicide bombing attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan on Dec. 30 was a Jordanian.
However, Jordanian officials have confirmed to local newspapers that the bomber, who was identified by world media as Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal Al-Balawi, had cooperation with the country’s General Intelligence Department (GID) by supplying the agency with information vital for protecting Jordan’s security.
Humam was arrested after his return to Jordan from Turkey earlier this year, but was released later after his interrogation came up with nothing incriminating, an official was quoted as saying.
Leader of the Balawi tribe, Salman Balawi, told the daily Alghad on Thursday that he “was not sure” that Humam was the man who carried out the suicide bombing at the Forward Operating Base Chapman in the Khost province, killing seven CIA agents.
