MIDDLE EAST: Jordanian police have arrested 17 militants linked to the al-Qaeda network in Iraq and an affiliated Saudi group plotting to attack US military personnel in the kingdom, security sources said yesterday.
They said interrogations of the suspects revealed six of them had ties to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, head of the al-Qaeda network in Iraq, while the others belonged to an underground Saudi group known as the Brigades of the Holy Shrines.
"They were planning attacks on foreign officers in the kingdom," said one security source, referring to a plot to attack US military personnel who frequent five-star hotels while on leave from duty in neighbouring Iraq. The arrests came after an investigation using informers to hunt Jordanian militants allied to al-Zarqawi who help recruit Arab militants to fight against US troops.
"The interrogations revealed their membership of these underground groups. They were recruiting terrorists for al-Qaeda in Iraq and collecting donations for the organisation," said another security source.
Jordanian intelligence has stepped up its watch after receiving warnings of possible attacks against western and Israeli targets in the kingdom, following recent bomb attacks in London and the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Security measures have been beefed up this week at Amman airport, sensitive government sites and embassies of countries backing the US military effort in Iraq, one official said.
Jordanian security sources say the militants are part of several Sunni fundamentalist underground cells that have been uncovered in recent months in Jordan. From the impoverished Sweileh neighbourhood of Amman, the militants will be charged with conspiracy to carry out terror attacks, which carries the death penalty. - (Reuters)