A Future Jordan - نحن الأردن

The Terrorist Attack in Aqaba.....

Analysis: Terrorist fool Jordan's security
By Sana Abdallah
United Press International Published August 19, 2005

AMMAN, Jordan -- Jordan's security measures and impressive record in aborting possible terrorism attacks in the kingdom were cracked Friday when three mortar rockets were fired from Jordan's Red Sea port of Aqaba.

A Jordanian soldier was killed and another was injured when one rocket landed at a Jordanian military warehouse in the port, another missile fell near a military hospital in Aqaba and a third hit the nearby Israeli resort of Eilat.

Officials said the attackers may have missed their intended target of two U.S. navy vessels docked at the port of Aqaba, both of which apparently left the area shortly after the rockets were fired Friday morning.

The authorities said the mortars were fired from a warehouse in an industrial zone that had been leased to a group of four Egyptians and Iraqis a few days ago and they were combing Aqaba and its surroundings for the four men.

A statement signed by the Abdullah al-Azzam Brigades of al-Qaida Organization in the Levant and Egypt, which claimed responsibility for the nearby Sharm el-Sheikh blasts last month, said on an Islamic website that they carried out the Aqaba attacks.

The statement, which could not be authenticated, vowed that Friday's attack, the first of their kind in the country, was "our debut operation in Jordan," saying that a group of its fighters targeted U.S. vessels with three Katyusha rockets. It warned the Americans, "who are spreading their corruption throughout the world and who have stolen the wealth of the Muslim nation, to expect even more stinging attacks."

"As we have begun to destroy the throne of the Egyptian tyrant, we warn the Jordanian tyrant to release our jailed brothers and voluntarily abdicate before we force you to go," the group threatened.

Jordan, a close U.S. ally, was the second Arab country after Egypt to have signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994 -- an unpopular move that had sharply increased security measures in the country in the past 11 years.

Jordan's King Abdullah, currently on an official visit to Russia, strongly condemned the attack and swore that it would not stop him from fighting terrorism and to chase down "all those who fiddle with Jordan's security and stability."

Palace sources said the king was in constant contact with the authorities and following up on investigations after his favorite Jordanian getaway spot, Aqaba, was hit. Abdullah frequents his palace on the shores of the resort town on weekends.

Although security in Aqaba was beefed up following the massive attacks on the Egyptian tourist resort of Sharm el-Sheikh last month, in which about 90 people were killed, Friday's rocket attack seemed to have shocked the monarch, who has prided in his country's reputation for stopping the terrorists, or suspected terrorists, from carrying out their plans.

Friday's events seriously cracked the country's security system, especially that mortar rockets and a launcher or more managed to be smuggled into what was believed to be an airtight security area. The attacks, while not targeting the mainly local tourists, came despite the fact that the State Security Court is currently hearing close to a dozen terror-related cases that include dozens of suspects - all who were arrested before carrying out their alleged attacks - and despite the high security presence around the country.

Jordan was perhaps the leading country in the world to have cracked down on "potential terrorists" who were trained in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and who returned to the kingdom in the mid-1990s.

The country's security services have earned the reputation of frightening "potential terrorists" from even thinking or plotting to use violence against any target on its territories and have not hesitated in putting advocates of violence behind bars.

In the past ten years, before the names of al-Qaida and its leader, Osama bin Laden, became known worldwide, Jordan has put on trial dozens of suspects it said were linked to the terrorist group for planning to carry out attacks. Even bin Laden himself was tried and sentenced in absentia a few years before he became a notorious household name around the world before the 9/11 attacks on the United States in 2001.

One former top intelligence officer told United Press International that the "advanced" Jordanian intelligence services had been the main supplier of credible information on al-Qaida and its affiliates to U.S. counterparts and had greatly contributed to the American investigations into the network.

Although the country prides itself on foiling terrorist attacks before they are carried out, the process has not been without complaints that innocent men -- Islamists to be specific -- have been thrown in jail and sometimes coerced into making false confessions if they appear to have a tendency towards resorting to violence. But these complaints in recent years have dwindled with the growing trend of violence being carried out in the name of Islam around the world, even among critics of human rights violations who now reluctantly admit "it is better to live in a police state than to risk living with terror."

Whoever was responsible for the Aqaba attacks - and al-Qaida group seems the likely candidate - clearly sent a message Friday that Jordan is not immune from the explosions that have been getting louder and more frequent by the day in the region and most of the rest of the world.

posted by Ashraf Zeitoon @ 4:41 AM