Jordan's security services have acted swiftly, restoring some confidence as a nation unifies against terror, reports Sanaa Abdallah in Amman An unprecedented triple suicide attack on Amman hotels on 9 November, which left around 60 people dead and 100 others injured, sent shock waves across Jordan and constituted a turning point for the kingdom in terms of confronting terrorism. The almost simultaneous attacks at the Grand Hyatt, Radisson SAS and Days Inn hotels puzzled Jordanians, who believed their country was immune from well- organised, indiscriminate attacks on civilians, especially when carried out by groups that claim Islam as their faith. The hotel attacks, whose casualties were mostly Jordanians and Palestinians, shattered general confidence in the usually-revered security services of the kingdom, which had an impressive record for foiling dozens of planned terror acts since the early 1990s by suspected Arabs who had fought in Afghanistan with the US-backed Mujahedeen against the Soviet occupation. Confidence was, however, somewhat restored when authorities captured one of the would-be suicide bombers, an Iraqi woman identified as Sajida Atrous Rishawi, on 13 November. The 35-year- old woman confessed on state-run Jordan television that she had accompanied her husband, Ali Hussein Shammari, and was to blow herself up at a local wedding party at the Radisson SAS Hotel but that she failed to detonate the belt she was wearing and ran out with others when her husband blew up. Security sources said authorities managed to track down Rishawi in "record time" from a mistake Al-Qaeda in Iraq organisation made in a statement that claimed responsibility for the Amman bombings. The group, led by Jordanian- born Abu Musab Zarqawi, said that four suicide bombers took part in the operation, including the wife of one of them. Security officials told Al-Ahram Weekly that Al-Qaeda trademarks were obvious in the attacks from the beginning, their statement being the thread that led them to capturing the Iraqi woman. Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Muasher said the woman was the sister of Zarqawi's right- hand man, Samer Atrous Rishawi, who was killed in a US offensive in the western Iraqi city of Fallujah. Whether her explosives failed to detonate, as she said in her cold, detached confession, or whether she became frightened and changed her mind, her capture was a breakthrough for investigators and for turning the tables on Zarqawi's Al-Qaeda. King Abdullah told CNN that Jordan will "crack down and take the fight to Zarqawi", adding that with all four operatives being Iraqis, Zarqawi changed his tactics by using foreigners in the kingdom. "We have been very successful in taking down his operations in the past when he used Jordanians ... That means that our security services have to change tactics too." This is the second time Zarqawi has claimed responsibility for an attack in the kingdom this year following the arrest of Iraqis for firing three Katyusha rockets in Jordan's Red Sea port city of Aqaba in August, targeting but missing a US Navy vessel. One rocket landed on a Jordanian military depot used by US forces, killing one Jordanian soldier and injuring another. A second rocket landed outside a local military hospital, the third slamming into the nearby Israeli resort town of Eilat, but no one was hurt. In August, opposition parties -- Islamic and leftist -- condemned the Aqaba attacks but refused to label them as acts of terror, implicitly blaming pro-US Jordanian policy for bringing such violence to the country. But the hotel bombings have changed the equation, and if there was any kind of justification for Al-Qaeda's fight in the past, it is now completely eliminated in the consciousness of the Jordanian population. Experts on Islamic militancy in Amman say Zarqawi, who was sentenced to death in absentia in 2003 for terror-related cases in Jordan, made a big mistake on 9 November. They speculate that he and his group did not likely expect to see such widespread anger and condemnation from the opposition and the street. Zarqawi has been regarded widely as a "phantom" until the hotel bombings. Nor did he likely expect to get a quick condemnation from Palestinian Islamic resistance groups such as Hamas. In addition, analysts say, the Jordanian king will likely succeed in his plans to crack down on anyone who tries to justify Al-Qaeda, or other Islamist militant operations, from now on. Abdullah said on 12 November that the Amman attack constituted a "major turning point in our dealing with those who sympathise with terrorism", warning that "anyone who justifies or incites terrorist acts is a partner in the crime. We will not accept any individual or party to justify terrorism or defend ideas that feed and support violence, harming innocent people." The king vowed to strike hard against terrorists and those who promote ideas of takfeer -- Muslims labelling other Muslims apostates -- adding there will be a national strategy to combat terrorism and this kind of ideology. Officials are speaking out about the need to eradicate the "culture of violence" propagated in the "minds of society". Thus, analysts say, a clear line needs to be drawn between terrorism and legitimate resistance against occupation to avoid mixing the issues, to protect free expression and not allow Tel Aviv and Washington to exploit terror in the Arab world. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, for example, was quick to telephone King Abdullah to offer his services in cooperating against terrorism, an offer that did not go down well among Jordanians in general. Analysts say that if such offers were favoured, the massive support and momentum the government has gained from the Amman bombings to succeed in its plans to eradicate violence carried out in the name of Islam would evaporate.
