Military court orders Al-Zarqawi to surrender

Jordan’s military court has ordered the Jordanian-born leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, and another terrorist suspect to surrender within 10 days.

Al-Zarqawi and alleged co-conspirator Mohammed Qteishat are charged with plotting terrorist attacks in Jordan which led to the death of one person. The court’s announcement did not provide further details.

The whereabouts of al-Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq, are unknown, with some reports saying he was recently wounded and evacuated from Iraq for treatment.

The announcement, which was published in the Ad-Dustour daily newspaper, did not provide other details. Military prosecutor Lt Col Mahmoud Obeidat declined to comment.

Al-Zarqawi is on trial in absentia in several cases. He is charged along with 12 others in connection with a foiled plot to launch chemical attacks against Jordan’s intelligence department.

The insurgent leader also has been indicted over an alleged conspiracy to attack the Jordanian embassy and other locations in Iraq, and over a foiled suicide attack on the Jordanian-Iraqi border.

He has been sentenced to death by a Jordanian military court for the October 2002 assassination of US diplomat Laurence Foley in Jordan.

Al-Zarqawi, 38, is believed to be directing anti-US attacks and kidnappings in Iraq, where the al-Qaida group he leads has beheaded several foreign hostages. The US has put a $25m (€19.4m) bounty on his head.