The bars are filled with tattooed ex-soldiers, young former officers and eastern European prostitutes. The men talk of the Iraq where they work for private security firms, and the women try to offer them an expensive escape.
Amman has become the service center for Western efforts to pacify and rebuild Iraq and Jordan's once faltering economy is booming to the point of overheating.
While many hotel guests are Jordanians, a large proportion are journalists, diplomats, soldiers, security guards and others who work in Iraq but use Amman as a base.
While most of the victims of Wednesday's suicide bombings were Jordanians, mainly at a wedding celebration, large numbers of Europeans and Americans were close to the explosion at the Grand Hyatt hotel. An al-Qaeda statement posted on the internet described the three hotels that were attacked as "filthy entertainment centers for the traitors and apostates of the umma [the Muslim world] and a safe haven for the infidel intelligence services."
The decision of King Abdullah II to support the war in Iraq and the continued US presence there has led to many economic benefits but it has placed the country squarely in the enemy camp in the eyes of Islamic fundamentalists and particularly Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born al-Qaeda leader.
The presence in Jordan of US special forces troops, employees of private security companies and western contractors for recuperation has made it an attractive target for militants fighting in Iraq.
Jordan has a porous border with Iraq, which is mostly uninhabited desert, and there is a large amount of traffic between the countries.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
US President Donald Trump on Friday said Washington was “locked and loaded” to respond if Iran killed protesters, prompting Tehran to warn that intervention would destabilize the region. Protesters and security forces on Thursday clashed in several Iranian cities, with six people reported killed, the first deaths since the unrest escalated. Shopkeepers in Tehran on Sunday last week went on strike over high prices and economic stagnation, actions that have since spread into a protest movement that has swept into other parts of the country. If Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
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