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Jordan pays terrible price for its economic rewards

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.
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