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The US navy vessel USS Kearsage, an amphibious assault ship, leaves the Jordanian port of Aqaba, Friday Aug. 19, 2005, after unknown attackers fired at least three missiles, killing a Jordanian sailor. The missiles were believed to have been fired from aneighbourhood on the outskirts of Aqaba. The Kearsage and the USS Ashland, a dock landing ship, left the port following the attack.(AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners August 19, 2005 |
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Unknown attackers fired at least three missiles from Jordan early Friday, with one narrowly missing a U.S. Navy ship docked in a Jordanian port and killing a Jordanian soldier. Another fell close to a nearby airport in neighboring Israel, officials said.
A Qaeda-linked group claimed credit for the attack on an Islamic website.
Three Katyusha rockets, weapons routinely used by Palestinian militants and Lebanon's Hezbollah group in attacks against Israel, were fired from a warehouse in Jordan's Red Sea port of Aqaba, which was rented this week by four people holding Egyptian and Iraqi nationalities, Jordan's state-run Petra news agency reported citing preliminary investigations.
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"This attack is a stark warning of the missiles that will be fired within a year to two years on Israeli cities from the terror bases that we are allowing Islamic terrorists to set up in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria. One sided concessions only push peace back and encourages terror."
MK Benjamin Netanyahu
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The multiple Katyusha rocket attack are believed to be the work of a Jordanian al Qaeda team controlled by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who heads the al-Qaeda network in Iraq.
The Qatar-based Arab satellite TV network al-Jazeera earlier this month quoted Jordanian security sources as saying they had arrested 17 people who had plotted to attack American military personnel in the country. They said that several of them were linked to al-Zarqawi.
Jordan has a history of reporting al-Qaeda related plots, in which dozens of people have been arrested and tried over the past several years, the Financial Times reported. In April last year, the authorities arrested a group of people who were said to be linked to Al-Zarqawi and charged them with plotting to carry out a chemical attack in the country.
In October 2002 a US embassy official, Laurence Foley, was shot and killed in front of his home in the capital Amman. The authorities arrested two people in connection with that case and said they too had links to al-Qaeda.
An Internet statement released by the al-Qaida-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades militant group claimed responsibility for the attacks.
"A group of our holy warriors ... targeted a gathering of American military ships docking in Aqaba port and also in Eilat port with three Katyusha rockets and the warriors returned safe to their headquarters," said the statement, which could not be immediately verified.
The Abdullah Azzam brigades was among several groups that claimed responsibility for previous attacks on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, including the October 7 car bombing of a hotel in the resort of Taba, which borders Israel, and the July 23 Sharm el-Sheik bombings that killed at least 64 people.
The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain, said two American amphibious ships attached to the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit were docked in Aqaba, about 350 kilometers (210 miles) south of the capital, Amman, when the missile was fired toward them.
The vessels later sailed out of port as a result of the attacks, U.S. Navy spokesman Lt. Cdr. Charlie Brown told The Associated Press in Bahrain.
Jordanian soldier Ahmed Jamal Saleh was fatally wounded when the missile sailed over the USS Ashland and slammed into a Jordanian army warehouse at the port, a Jordanian security official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the press.
The soldier died in an ambulance taking him to hospital, while another unidentified Jordanian was also wounded, the official added.
Brown said a rocket flew over the USS Ashland's bow at about 8:44 a.m. and crashed through a nearby pier warehouse, leaving an 8 foot (2.5 meter) hole in its roof.
No American sailors or Marines were injured in the attack on the vessels, which were apparently taking part in routine exercises with the Jordanian military and had docked at the mouth of the Red Sea port earlier this week.
The Jordanian official said another missile landed near a public hospital about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) away. It was unclear if there were any casualties or damages caused.
In neighboring Israel's Red Sea resort of Eilat, police and witnesses said a Katyusha rocket fired from Jordan slammed into a taxi traveling near the city's airport, but did not explode.
"I heard a noise, the car shook, and I kept driving for two more meters (yards)," said Israeli cab driver Meir Farhan, 40, who suffered mild wounds. "I didn't realize what it was, (but) when I went out of the car I saw a hole in the ground on the asphalt."
The rocket left a small crater in the road about 15 meters (yards) from the Eilat airport fence, said local police commander Avi Azulin.
Aqaba and Eilat are about 15 kilometers (9 miles) apart and located on either side the Jordan-Israeli border at the northern end of the Red Sea close to the Sinai Peninsula.
Petra said the warehouse in Aqaba where the missiles were fired from had been rented several days ago by four people holding Egyptian and Iraqi nationalities. No further details were provided.
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz speaking in southern Israel said the attacks were "intended to hit the Israeli side and the Jordanian side as well." He said there was no prior warning of an attack.
Jordan, which is home to 1.8 million Palestinian refugees and their descendants, and Israel signed a 1994 peace deal. Palestinians represent a majority of Jordan's population.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the attacks, but Islamic extremists have long criticized Jordan's U.S.-allied moderate government for its peace treaty with Israel and close ties with the West.
The Katyusha rockets are a largely inaccurate unguided weapon that have been used by Palestinian militias in attacks on Israel plus during the 1975-90 Lebanese civil war by most parties to that conflict. The 127mm Katyusha rocket has a range of up to 27 kilometers (17 miles).
The Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah is known to possess several thousand Katyusha rockets and has used them to attack Israeli positions along Lebanon's southern border with the Jewish state.
Police officials guessed that the attacks represented a terrorist attempt to stage a coordinated strike.
Flights were briefly halted at the Eilat airport but have since resumed.
Former finance minister Benjamin Netanyahu, responding to the coordinated kaytusha attack on Eilat and Aqaba, said: "This attack is a stark warning of the missiles that will be fired within a year to two years on Israeli cities from the terror bases that we are allowing Islamic terrorists to set up in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria. One sided concessions only push peace back and encourages terror."
But an Israeli official said the rocket landing in Eilat's tourist area, right next to its airport, was probably just an accident and that Israel was not a target of al-Qaeda. The head of PM Sharon's Anti-Terror Bureau, Dani Arditi, told Ynet that "the targets of the terrorists were apparently American ships in Aqaba, and not the nearby airport in Eilat. From my experience with the Jordanians, they will do whatever is necessary in order to not suffer from such threats. They are very effective and professional, and neutralizing terrorism is a major priority for them. I think they will be able to do so, as they have in the past."
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