UPDATE: November 12, 2005, 23:55 GMT Al-Qaeda unleashed Amman bombers Al-Qaeda on Thursday claimed responsibility for three suicide bomb attacks that killed at least 56 people in Amman, the Jordanian capital, saying the country had become a "backyard" for US-led operations in neighbouring Iraq Though Jordan is not thought of as harbouring as many militant-leaning citizens as Saudi Arabia, Islamist movements have long threatened the monarchy there, and analysts say sympathy with their goals is high in some parts of the country. Hundreds of Jordanian militants have entered Iraq across the country's desert border since the war began, say counterterrorism experts. The Al-Qaeda claim on an Islamist website, which was not verified, said in an apparent reference to Jordan's King Abdullah: "Let the tyrant of Amman know that his protection of the Jews has become a target for the Mujahideen and their attacks, and let him expect the worst." Jordanian officials declared Friday a national day of mourning. King Abdullah said on national television that, "The hand of justice will reach the perpetrators wherever they are." Flags flew at half-mast, and radio stations played patriotic songs throughout the day. Motorists honked, and marchers held banners condemning terrorism as modestly sized rallies were held in Amman and in countryside villages. Wearing red-checked kuffiyehs (the traditional headdress of Jordanian men), youthful demonstrators chanted allegiance to King Abdullah II and denounced Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Al Qaeda-linked Jordanian national whose Iraq-based militant group is believed to be responsible for the blasts. More than half of those killed in the blasts, 33, were Jordanians, Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Muasher said Thursday. Others killed included six Iraqis, two Bahrainis, two Chinese, an Indonesian, a Syrian, a Saudi and an American. The FBI on Thursday sent a team of specialised bomb investigators to Amman at the request of the Jordanian government that included, officials said, at last five experts in evidence recovery, explosives and bomb forensics. The pro-US orientation of the government as well as the 1994 peace treaty with Israel remain unpopular with many Jordanians, even if they have brought considerable US aid. Farouq Kasrawi, the Jordanian prime minister, said the kingdom's policies would not change. The attacks in Amman are the most devastating to have hit an Arab capital outside Baghdad so far. They follow suicide bombings in the Egyptian Red Sea resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh in July in which nearly 100 died, and are likely to heighten concerns in the region that a new generation of jihadistsindependent operationally and financially of Al-Qaeda's original leadershipis emerging as a result of the Iraq war. According to Brian Jenkins, a terrorism expert at the RAND Corp in Santa Monica, California. "With the war in Iraq, there will be more spill-over." Mr Jenkins says that as a result of the insurgency, Iraq has been a "net importer of jihadists"drawing on extremist sympathisers from other Muslim nations. He worries the attacks in Jordan indicate Iraq will eventually become a net exporter of terrorists, which would have an impact on the jihadist movement worldwide, but particularly on countries like Jordan that are adjacent to Iraq and allied with the US, he said. The Iraq war gave the jihadists the chance, metaphorically at least, to come home again. "A sign of the impending tragedy in Jordan," says Evan Kohlmann, an Al-Qaeda expert and author, "was a failed attack claimed by Zarqawi's group on two US warships in the Gulf of Aqaba in August." "The first attack in Jordan was the last warning sign," says Kohlmann. "Everyone knew that this was coming, it was just a matter of time." After the US invasion of Afghanistan, Zarqawi, like many other militants, was flushed out of the country and briefly operated from Iraq's semi-independent Kurdistan region in cooperation with Ansar Al-Islam and Ansar Al-Sunnah, according to US officials. But soon after the US invasion of Iraq, US officials believe he moved into the country proper, achieving what has long been Al-Qaeda's dream: a battleground for jihad in the heart of the Middle East. The ultimate objective for Al-Qaeda and its allies is to create a hard-line caliphate throughout the Middle East, starting with Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam. For their part, Jordanian authorities maintained heavy policing amid simmering popular resentment at the overthrow of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the plight of the Palestinians. Politicians and analysts had long feared attacks. However, street demonstrations on Thursday signalled an apparent backlash against the extremists. "The country is expressing solidarity and there are demonstrations all over," said Mustafa Hamarneh, director of the Centre for Strategic Studies in Amman. "On TV, on radio, everyone is condemning the attacks in the strongest terms, including the Muslim Brotherhood, to show their solidarity with the rest of the population." Amman and the targeted hotelsthe Grand Hyatt, Radisson SAS and Days Innare popular with Westerners, including security contractors and aid workers in Iraq. Each of the blasts targeted a hotel owned by a Western chain. The first bomb killed more than 20 people in the Grand Hyatt, one of the city's largest lodgings, police at the scene said. At the Radisson SAS, also west of downtown, at least 20 people attending a wedding reception in a banquet room were killed, according to police and hospital officials. Initial reports suggested suicide bombers on foot were responsible for those two blasts, although police at the scene said a rigged device had been planted in at least one of the hotels. The third blast came when a car detonated in the street outside the Days Inn, police and government officials said. DNA tests are being used to identify at least 14 bodies, including those of the bombers. Despite its proximity to Iraq, Amman is widely considered one of the Middle East's safest capitals, and luxury hotels have had only minimal security. Jordanian security forces thwarted a number of potentially devastating attacks in recent years. In what became known as the millennium plot, Abu Musab Zarqawi targeted several tourist sites in the city, including the Radisson, just before New Year's Eve in 1999. Authorities uncovered the scheme and Zarqawi fled the country. In April 2004, Jordanian officials said they had broken up an attempted chemical attack on the capital that they said could have killed 20,000 people. Police said they foiled another planned attack against hotels and embassies that summer. This August, Zarqawi's Al-Qaeda in Iraq group asserted that its fighters had launched Katyusha rockets that narrowly missed a US warship in Jordan's Red Sea port of Aqaba. Some officials said the incident could serve as a social unifier in Jordan, where poverty and limited political rights have stirred division and resentment against the country's elites. The bombings were also seen as evidence of the need for more restrictions on who can enter and leave Jordan. Iraqis, for example, have poured in since the US-led invasion in 2003 and are now said to number 500,000 or more. In Israel, Amman's other closest neighbour, the Amman attacks stirred deep unease. Among Arab nations, Jordan probably has the closest and most cordial ties with Israel, and many Israelis travel to Jordan for business and tourism. Israel's Foreign Ministry denied a report that Israeli citizens had been evacuated from one of the hotels before the explosions. About a dozen Israeli nationals left Amman with the assistance of Jordanian authorities, according to Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev. He said they left after the attacks, not before. Israel's daily Haaretz newspaper backtracked from an earlier report in which it said Israelis had been told to leave the Radisson earlier Wednesday in response to a specific intelligence warning. Israelis for months have been advised to avoid travel to Jordan, along with other destinations, including Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. World leaders, including US President George W Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, condemned the bombings, some offering to assist in the investigation. In Washington, President Bush said in a statement: "The barbaric acts again demonstrated the terrible cruelty of the terrorists and the great toll they take on civilised society ... To the people of Jordan and King Abdullah, we pledge our full support in their efforts to bring the terrorists to justice."
