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| By: Israel Insider staff and partners |
| Published: May 14, 2006 |
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A prime suspect in an alleged Hamas plot targeting Jordanian officials is an observant Muslim whose brother was killed fighting U.S. forces in neighboring Iraq three years ago, his family said Friday.
Ayman Naji Daraghmeh, 34, confessed on television Thursday that he was a Hamas agent who stashed away weapons in Jordan and monitored a Jordanian intelligence officer, apparently for a possible attack. He said he acted under orders from Hamas officials in Syria, where he said he received military training.
He was one of a group of 20 people arrested in what Jordan says was a plot by the Palestinian militant movement to carry out attacks in the kingdom - a charge denied by Hamas, which now heads the Palestinian government.
Daraghmeh's family said Friday it was "surprised" by his disclosure and insisted the charges were not true.
"It's not possible that he's a Hamas member," said his father Naji Saleh, 64. "He's not politicized and I know that all what my son cared for is to bring food to his three children."
"My son is innocent," insisted Daraghmeh's mother, Farida Ahmad, 59, her voice crackling and often weeping in an interview at her humble one-story home on the edge of Zarqa, the hometown of al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, 27 kilometers (17 miles) northeast of the Jordanian capital Amman.
"He's a devout Muslim who prayed and feared God; He could never hurt anyone, he would never harm the Jordanian people," added the Palestinian woman, who, like the rest of her family, comes from a village near the Samarian town of Nablus.
"This is a fabricated story and I'm shocked to hear the accusations leveled against my son," said the woman, wearing a headscarf and a long embroidered Palestinian dress.
"I was baffled to see him on television, admitting that he was a member of Hamas," she said. "This is not true because if it was the case, he would've told me; He was very honest with me and never kept secrets from me."
She said that her other son, Haitham, 26, was "martyred while fighting in Iraq at the outset of the war in 2003." She declined to provide other details, or say if her son had told her about his plans travel plans to Iraq.
Jordan's claims of the plot have further deepened a longtime rift between the kingdom, which has signed a peace treaty with Israel, and Hamas, which refuses to recognize the Jewish state.
The militant group has carried out a campaign of violence against Israel, but is not known to have conducted attacks outside the country and insists it has no intention to take its fight beyond the borders.
Hamas officials on Thursday accused Jordan of trying to increase the isolation of its Palestinian government, which is suffering under a cut-off of international aid.
Jordan said it uncovered a large cache of arms on April 18, including Iranian-made Katyusha rockets and anti-tank missiles, and arrested the Hamas members in raids that followed.
Two other men also making televised confessions Thursday said Daraghmeh allegedly recruited them. Ahmad Abu Rabee, 27, and Ahmed Abu Thiyab, a mosque preacher, said they were assigned to monitor a Christian Jordanian businessman, intelligence officers and foreign tourists and to smuggle and hide weapons in Jordan.
AP contributed to this report. |
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