Suicide attacks kill 53 at hotel complex in Jordan
Major Bashir al-Da’aja said officials believe all three blasts were carried out by suicide bombers.
The explosions indicated the involvement of al-Qaida, which has launched coordinated attacks on high- profile, Western targets in the past, a police official said.
One explosion occurred in a wedding hall where 300 guests were celebrating. Black smoke rose into the night and the wounded stumbled out of the hotels.
A US counter-terrorism official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said no one had claimed responsibility for the attacks.
However, the official said, the strong suspicion is that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, was involved because of his known animosity for Jordan and because of the fact that suicide bombers were involved, one of his hallmarks.
The first blast was reported at about 8.50pm local time (6.50pm Irish time) at the luxury Grand Hyatt hotel, popular with tourists and diplomats, and completely shattered its stone entrance.
An Associated Press reporter counted seven bodies being taken away and many more wounded being carried out on stretchers.
Jordan’s Prime Minister Adnan Badran later arrived at the scene.
A few minutes later, police reported an explosion at the Radisson SAS Hotel a short distance away. Police said five people were killed and at least 20 wounded in the blast at a wedding hall where at least 300 people were celebrating.
The hotel is popular with American and Israeli tourists and was the target of a plot in 2000.
Israel’s ambassador to Jordan, Yaakov Hadas, told Israel TV from Amman there were no reports of Israeli casualties.
“We thought it was fireworks for the wedding but I saw people falling to the ground,” said Ahmed, a wedding guest who did not give his surname. “I saw blood. There were people killed. It was ugly.”
Dana Burde, from New York, was in the lobby of the Radisson at the time of that explosion.
“We were sort of blown out of the room, but the wall sort of caved in,” Burde told CNN.
“There was a lot of debris, certainly people were killed.”
A third explosion was reported at the Days Inn Hotel, and police said there were casualties.
At the Grand Hyatt, an American businessman said the explosion occurred in the lobby of the five-star hotel. Witnesses saw smoke rising from the building.
The Grand Hyatt Amman has 316 guest rooms and 50 luxury residential apartments in the adjoining Hyatt Tower. The hotel is located in the heart of Amman’s business and diplomatic district.
The five-star Radisson SAS Hotel has 260 guest rooms.
The three hotels have security guards hired from a private Jordanian firm stationed in the reception areas. Each of the hotels has one or two police cars guarding the buildings around the clock.
King Abdullah II cut short his official visit to Kazakhstan and was returning home immediately.
“The hand of justice will get to the criminals who targeted innocent secure civilians with their cowardly acts,” he said in a statement carried by the official Petra news agency.
Security was beefed up across the capital last night, especially around hotels and diplomatic missions, police said. Armed policemen and cars patrolled the streets, and Mr Badran declared today a national holiday - apparently in order to allow tightened security measures to take hold.
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