Posted on 08/20/2005 2:20:02 PM PDT by bayourod
AQABA, Jordan - Police detained several suspects on Saturday as the hunt widened for the attackers who fired and supplied the rockets that narrowly missed a U.S. Navy ship anchored in the bay of this Red Sea port best known for beach vacations and Mideast summits.
Those arrested included Iraqis, Syrians, Egyptians and Jordanians, according to a Jordanian security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly. He would not give the number of detainees.
Interior Minister Awni Yirfas told The Associated Press that security forces had found the launcher used to fire the three Katyusha rockets.
Police found four more rockets when they seized the launcher in a warehouse in an industrial zone on a hillside overlooking Aqaba, state TV reported Saturday. The four rockets were defused, the report said.
The newscast did not say whether anyone had been detained for Friday's attack.
The Gulf of Aqaba, a narrow northern extension of the Red Sea, is bordered by Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia with the frontiers of the four countries touching or within view of one another.
A further outbreak of terrorism in the region would be particularly worrisome not only because of U.S. Navy targets in the area but also because Muslim extremists want to topple governments in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan _ all longtime American allies. Egypt and Jordan have peace treaties with Israel.
The Abdullah Azzam Brigades _ an al-Qaida-linked group that claimed responsibility for the bombings which killed at least 64 people at Sharm el-Sheik in July and 34 people at two other Egyptian resorts last October _ said in an Internet statement that its fighters had fired the Katyushas, bolstering concerns that Islamic extremists had opened a new front in the region.
Authorities said the warehouse used to launch the notoriously inaccurate rockets had been rented days beforehand by four men carrying Iraqi and Egyptian identity papers.
The security official who disclosed Saturday's arrests said an Iraqi detainee was suspected of taking part in the attack, but he cautioned against assuming the others arrested were equally involved.
A Jordanian soldier was killed and another wounded when one Katyusha flew across the bow of the USS Ashland and hit a warehouse used by the Americans to store goods headed to Iraq.
Two more rockets were fired toward Israel. One fell short and hit the wall of a Jordanian military hospital. The other landed close to Israel's Eilat airport, lightly wounding a taxi driver.
Police said Saturday they were searching for as many as six people _ including one Syrian, Egyptians and Iraqis _ who escaped in a vehicle with Kuwaiti license plates.
Security was tightened nationwide, including in the capital Amman, which has been the target of several failed al-Qaida terrorist plots _ including one using chemicals in April 2004. Police at road blocks were stopping cars and checking identity papers. Pictures of suspects were distributed to border checkpoints.
Although the rockets missed the USS Ashland, the Navy decided to sail both of its ships out of Aqaba bay as a precaution. They had arrived earlier in the week for a military exercise with the Jordanian navy.
Jordan is trying to determine the source of the rockets, and how they were smuggled into the country, which has tight border security.
Lebanon's Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, has thousands of Katyushas.
Doug Richardson, of the London-based Jane's Defense Review, said the rockets have been widely copied from their original Russian design and modified by many countries, including those in eastern Europe and China.
Iran and Hezbollah would be "potential sources" of the weapon, he said in a telephone interview.
In Lebanon, a Hezbollah official declined to comment when asked about the group's involvement.
In Syria, Elias Murad, chief editor of Al-Baath newspaper, mouthpiece of the country's ruling Baath Party, said attempts to involve Damascus were "ridiculous because Katyusha rockets exist in two-thirds of the world."
Hezbollah pounded Israel's north with Katyusha rockets for two decades in a guerrilla war that ended with Israel's pullout from southern Lebanon in 2000.
In Iraq, insurgents have used Katyusha rockets against U.S. military installations.
Associated Press reporter Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.
A service of the Associated Press(AP)
PETA better get someone over there quick to make sure there is no cruelty to animals.
They would probably not have acted so fast if they hadn't seen what we did to Iraq for supporting terrorists or if a Democrat had been president.
I suspect the Syrian, Egyptians and Iraqis captured will be treated somewhat differently than at Club Gitmo. They killed a Jodanian officer. I suspect they will be very talkative when the rest of the Jordanian army finishes "convincing" them.
Minor nit.
If terrorism is defined as intentional attacks on civilians to promote a political agenda, then these attacks (or anyway the rockets fired at the American ships) weren't necessarily terrorism.
It is not illegitimate for those opposing the American presence in the area to attack American military targets. Assuming they wore uniforms, didn't hide behind civilians, etc. (Yeah, right!)
Seriously, I don't think it's a good idea to classify all possible attacks on American military targets as terrorism. It blurs a line we should be trying to keep clear.
I bet if al Zaqawi showed up there he wouldn't be too welcomed.
It's also legitimate for us to kill them for doing so and to change the regime that failed to prevent the attacks.
Agreed.
The Jordanian government has a history of dealing forcefully with terrorists when necessary.
Yep, and they don't have the ACLU trying to stop then either.
I agree. However, it is guerilla action.
But they have hedged their bets on Iraq.
It is not up to us to make the distinction. Those who are making war have their own list of enemies--which includes pure civilians, gov't agents such as police, and military personnel and equipment such as truck convoys. As cover the terrorists try to blend in with the population, and that population includes every walk of life from shopkeeper to military officers. Unfortunately, inner motivation does not identify terrorists until the outer act.
What is the Fed's clear definition of terrorism?
Change the regime ?
What, you think we should unseat the governments of sovereign countries because they have terrorists operating there ?
Gitmo time...
Starting with Canada. (Just kidding, just kidding!)
I'll leave the judgment on degree of culpability and appropriate response up to the President. That's what we elected him for.
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