Al-Qaeda's Jordanian-born Iraq frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi defended this month's deadly bombings in Amman in a purported voice recording posted on Friday as tens of thousands of his countrymen rallied to protest the attacks.
The audiotape insisted it had not been al-Qaeda's intention to target the wedding party which was hit in the Nov. 9 triple suicide bombings that killed 59 people, saying the group had information the hotels were being used by US intelligence agents.
"If we'd wanted to carry out bombings in the middle of a wedding, there are wedding halls all over the country and their doors are open," said the voice, whose authenticity could not immediately be verified.
"God knows that the decision to target these hotels was taken only after ascertaining that they had become bases for Jewish and America security services," the voice added.
"If we had wanted to kill innocents as the apostate [Jordanian] regime claims, we would not have resorted to sacrificing the lives of those who got through the security barriers," the voice said.
"It would have been much easier for us for them to have set off the bombs in a public place -- that would have been an easier target," the voice said.
In the aftermath of the attacks, even bloggers on extremist Islamist Internet forums had criticized Zarqawi for the strikes, with some calling on him to explain the purpose of attacks that killed mostly Jordanians.
The audiotape also warned Jordanians to stay away from luxury hotels like the three hit in this month's bombings, as well as the diplomatic missions of countries which took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
It told them not to approach "US and British bases ... tourist hotels and all the embassies and consulates of countries that took part in the war in Iraq."
To end al-Qaeda attacks in Jordan, the tape demanded the departure of British and US troops from the kingdom, the closure of the US and Israeli embassies and an end to training in Jordan for Iraq's fledgling security forces.
It also demanded the closure of the Jordanian mission in Baghdad and of what it said were "secret prisons" on Jordanian territory.
The Internet posting came as at least 200,000 people marched though the center of Amman in the largest show of public anger over the bombings so far, police and organizers said.
Many protestors shouted slogans against the al-Qaeda Iraq frontman, chanting: "Zarqawi, from Amman, we say to you: you are a coward."
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
RSS