US may have questioned Jordan bomber

AMERICAN forces last year detained and later released an Iraqi with a name that matched one of three suicide bombers who struck Amman hotels, killing 57 people, the US military said yesterday.

Jordanian authorities said Safaa Mohammed Ali, aged 23, was part of the al-Qaida in Iraq squad that bombed the Grand Hyatt, Radisson SAS and Days Inn hotels on Wednesday. In Baghdad, the US command said a man by that name was detained by US forces in November 2004 during their assault on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah. The Americans said they did not know if the man they detained was the same Safaa Mohammed Ali identified by the Jordanians as one of the bombers.

He was detained but was released two weeks later because there was no "compelling evidence to continue to hold him", the military said.