Jordan marks anniversary of hotel suicide bombings

Jordan marked the first anniversary of al-Qaida’s triple hotel bombings today, voicing a fresh resolve to fight terrorism and commemorating the 60 people who lost their lives in the attacks.

The country’s red, white, green and black colours were hoisted high on the streets of the capital Amman, with some flags in shape of interlocked hands and other banners proclaiming: “We are all for Jordan”.

“This heinous crime confirms that fighting terrorism and terrorists is the responsibility of everybody,” said Jordan’s King Abdullah II at a commemoration ceremony.

“This occasion requires from all of us to affirm the real principles of Islam, which the terrorists are trying to tarnish by using our great Islamic religion as a pretext to commit their crimes and spread destruction all over the world,” Abdullah told the official Petra news agency.

Government spokesman Nasser Judeh said the “tragic bombings” in Amman were remembered with deep sadness, but also with a renewed determination to bring all terrorists to justice.

Children paid tribute to the blast victims with a minute's silence at the beginning of the day as they gathered in the country’s public and private schools.

Commemorative events were being held throughout the day, including a lunch hosted by the king for families of the victims, the unveiling of a monument at the newly named Amman Martyrs Site garden, a poetry reading and the dedication of two of the capital’s streets, one to the victims and the other to the memory of Syrian-American filmmaker Mustafa Akkad, who perished in the blasts.

Jordanians are still reeling from the attacks, the worst terrorist incident in recent memory and widely labelled “Jordan’s 9/11”.

Suicide bombers entered three Amman hotels and set off their bombs nearly simultaneously in the operation, claimed by al-Qaida in Iraq and its now-dead leader, Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Most of the casualties occurred at a wedding party held at the Radisson-SAS hotel, where an Iraqi man strapped with explosives joined 300 guests in the ground-floor reception hall and blew himself up, killing the groom’s father and 16 other family members and in-laws.

The bomber’s wife, Iraqi Sajida al-Rishawi, 35, was sentenced to death on September 21 for her role in the bombings, along with five other Iraqis and a Jordanian who remain at large.

The blasts’ anniversary makes the attack “feel like it happened just yesterday”, said Ashraf al-Akhras, the groom of the stricken wedding party. “But we’re now trying to move forward with our lives because we cannot stop living,” he said.

Officials moved quickly following the attacks to step up security measures by reinforcing police units at hotels and other popular tourist destinations.

The government also recently enacted a tougher new anti-terrorism law, which permits the indefinite detention of suspects, but the legislation has raised concerns from human rights activists that it could infringe on public freedoms.