AMMAN, 4 August 2004 — Jordanian security forces have arrested a ninth suspect in an abortive chemical attack that was plotted by an Al-Qaeda-linked group in April against targets in the country, including the US Embassy, State Security Prosecutor Mahmoud Obeidat announced yesterday.
“Hassan Samik was arrested earlier this week in Irbid by security men, bringing the number of suspects detained in this case to nine,” Obeidat said.
The authorities arrested eight suspects in April, including leader of the terrorist cell Azmi Jayousi, while four others were killed in a shoot-out with security forces.
However, four more suspects, including Iraq-based Abu Mussab Zarqawi, dubbed as senior aide of Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden, were still at large, Obeidat said.
“We are currently interrogating all suspects and summoning witnesses in order to prepare a charge sheet against the defendants. This will take a long time,” he added.
In a televised confession on April 26, Jayousi said he was recruited by Zarqawi to carry out a suicide attack against the US Embassy in Amman, the Prime Ministry and the General Intelligence Department, using vehicles laden with 20 tons of chemicals.
Government experts contended that if carried out, the attack could have killed 80,000 people and injured 160,000 others.
Zarqawi confirmed in an audiotape posted later on a website that his group planned to destroy the GID headquarters, but denied his followers planned a chemical attack.
All 17 suspects belonged to a previously unknown group calling itself “Kataeb Al-Tawhid”, Arabic for the Battalions of Monotheism.
In another development, Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher yesterday expected “early positive results” for ongoing efforts to ensure the release of between 7 and 9 Jordanians held hostage in Iraq.
However, he told the official news agency, Petra, that good offices in this respect were facing “problems” with kidnappers due to the “diversity of their objectives”.
“We hope to come up with positive results as soon as possible,” Muasher said. He pointed out that the Foreign Ministry and the Jordanian diplomatic mission in Baghdad were conducting “relentless efforts around he clock to ensure the release of seven Jordanians, whom we are sure of their abduction”.
“We are in constant touch with relatives of the captives as well as with tribal and religious leaders in Iraq to secure their release,” Muasher said.
“However, the Jordanian diplomacy faces problems with the abductors, due to the diversity of their targets,” he added.
