Jordan Times
Tuesday, August 3, 2004
Security forces nab 9th terror
suspect
By Rana Husseini
AMMAN — Security officials on Monday said they arrested a ninth suspect in a
foiled chemical attack plotted by an Al Qaeda-linked group in April against
targets in Amman.
“Hassan Samik was arrested [on Sunday] in Irbid
by security forces, bringing the number of suspects detained in this case to
nine,” State Prosecutor Mahmoud Obeidat said.
The authorities arrested the eight in April, including the leader of the
terrorist cell Azmi Jayousi, while four others were killed in a shoot-out with
security forces in the same month.
Obeidat told The Jordan Times that four more suspects, including Iraq-based Al
Qaeda leader, Fadel Nazzal Khalayleh, better known as Abu Mussab Zarqawi, are
still at large.
“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,”
Obeidat said.
In a televised confession on April 26, Jayousi said he was recruited by Zarqawi
to carry out a suicide attack against the General Intelligence Department using
vehicles laden with 20 tonnes of chemicals. Other targets included the Prime
Ministry and the US embassy.
In the same month, Zarqawi confirmed in an audiotape posted on a website that
his group planned to destroy the Jordanian intelligence headquarters. But he
denied they intended a chemical attack, according to Agence France-Presse. The
suspects were all affiliated with a previously unknown group called Kataeb Al
Tawhid, Arabic for the Battalions of Monotheism, which is linked to Al Qaeda.