Jordan Times
Monday, November 14, 2005
Would-be female suicide
bomber arrested
By Alia Shukri Hamzeh
AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah announced
Sunday that authorities arrested a woman who was a member of the suicide bombers
who carried out attacks on three Amman hotels last week.
"There is a fourth bomber, a woman, who failed to blow herself up at Radisson
SAS Hotel along with her husband and she's in custody," the King told a media
conference at Le Meridien Hotel.
Iraq's Al Qaeda, led by Abu Mussab Al Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the
almost simultaneous blasts at the Grand Hyatt, Radisson SAS and Days Inn hotels
— which killed 57 people and injured 100. The statement said four Iraqis,
including a husband and wife, carried out the attacks.
In a televised confession on JTV Sunday evening, the woman, identified as Sajida
Mubarak Atrous Al Rishawi, explained how she tried to blow herself up alongside
her husband, Ali Hassan Al Shumari, at Radisson SAS last Wednesday.
The woman was shown standing up and modelling what appeared to be the explosive
belt that was strapped to her body.
Earlier Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Muasher announced the breakthrough
in the investigation into the attacks, saying the woman was apprehended. The
Associated Press quoted a senior security official as saying that the woman was
arrested Sunday morning at an Amman "safe house," in the same district where her
husband had rented a furnished apartment earlier in the week.
The official said security forces were "tipped off" by Al Qaeda claim. "There
were leads that more people had been involved, but it was not clear that it was
a woman and we had no idea on her nationality," AP quoted the official as
saying.
Muasher said the four bombers entered the country from Al Karameh border
crossing.
He identified the two bombers of the Grand Hyatt and Days Inn as Rawwad Jasem
Mohammed Abed and Safa Mohammed Ali, both 23.
Muasher said each of the attackers used suicide belts packed with 5-10kg of RDX
explosives and ball bearings — designed to kill as many people as possible. He
could not state if the explosives were brought into the country or purchased
locally.
The terrorists rented an apartment in Tla'a Al Ali area on November 7, left it
on Wednesday and took taxis to the three hotels, according to Muasher.
He said the couple knew there was a wedding at Radisson SAS, "in a clear
indication that they wanted to have maximum impact." The minister showed
reporters a photo of the woman's explosive belt attached with the ball bearings,
saying it was meant "to inflict the largest number of casualties." Most of those
who died were Jordanians attending the wedding.
He said the woman was the sister of Zarqawi's top aide in Al Anbar region in
Iraq, Samer Mubarak Al Rishawi. Samer Al Rishawi, called by Al Qaeda as Al Anbar
prince, was killed earlier this year in the western Iraqi town of Fallujah.
Muasher said the Iraqi bombers had chosen the hotels because they were "easy
targets," adding that the government had already started intensifying its
security measures around hotels and major buildings.
He said investigation has shown that there were no Jordanians involved in the
actual attacks. "The investigation suggests the attackers did not contact any
Jordanians in order not to blow their cover," he said. Asked about the 12 who
were in custody, Muasher said they were "followers" of Al Zarqawi. "But it has
not been proven that they were involved in this attack," he added.
"We are taking all the measures in order not to have a repetition of this
attack," he added. The attacks were the largest in the country's history.
Observers say fear is growing over the spread of such attacks into other
countries in the region.
In earlier statements, Muasher said security authorities have managed to foil
numerous attacks against the Kingdom. In August, the group fired rockets at US
ships docked in the Aqaba port city killing one Jordanian soldier. The attackers
came from Iraq.
"It's true that the terrorists are Iraqis, but this doesn't mean that the Iraqi
government or the Iraqi people support such actions," Muasher said. "We all know
that the Iraqi government suffers from this group," he added. A large number of
Iraqis had entered the Kingdom following the US-led war on Iraq. Unofficial
estimates place the number of Iraqi refugees in the Kingdom at more than
600,000.
"Beefing up security is the first step. We will not stop here, we want to come
up with a long-term strategy to counter the mentality of terrorism... Jordan,
Iraq and all the countries of the region will be able to eliminate this plague,"
he said.
Zarqawi, Al Qaeda's main man in Iraq, faces a death sentence in Jordan. He was
tried in absentia for the 2002 murder of a US diplomat.
"We are going to crack down and take the fight to Zarqawi," the King told CNN on
Saturday. "We have been very successful in taking down his operations in the
past... (when) he used Jordanians. Now he has changed tactics, he is using
foreigners. That means that our security services have to change tactics too."
On Sunday, the King told police chiefs of the Arab world convening in Amman for
a security conference that tactics used by terrorist groups and their extremist
ideologies must be scrutinised in order to abort criminal plots.
King Abdullah also urged the Arab law enforcement officers to work to prevent
the cultivation and brainwashing of youth by terrorists.
He said extremist ideologies must be confronted and exposed for the falsehood
their followers promote. He stressed that it is imperative that countries build
a culture that renounces terrorism and fanaticism.
King Abdullah also called for UN-sponsored agreements on combating crimes and
corruption.