TV confession of failed suicide bomber

An Iraqi woman appeared on Jordanian television today confessing to a failed bid to set off an explosives belt inside one of the three Amman hotels targeted by al-Qaida.

“My husband wore an (explosives-packed) belt and I wore another. He told me how to use it,” said Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi, 35, who was shown on state-run TV wearing a white head scarf, black gown and the disabled bomb strapped around her waist.

Looking nervous and wringing her hands, al-Rishawi described Wednesday's attack on the Radisson SAS, one of three hotels targeted.

“My husband detonated (his bomb) and I tried to explode my belt but it wouldn’t,” she said. “People fled running and I left running with them.”

Her husband, Ali Hussein Ali al-Shamari, 35, was identified today as one of three Iraqi men who carried out bombings on three Amman hotels that killed 57 people.