Al Qaeda Arrests In U.S. Diplo Slay

Police have arrested two alleged al Qaeda members in the killing of an American diplomat in October, the information minister said Saturday.

Laurence Foley, 60, was shot at close range Oct. 28 in front of his home in Amman in a brazen killing that shocked Jordanians and the American diplomatic community in the normally safe Middle Eastern country.

Information Minister Mohammad Affash Adwan said in a statement broadcast on Jordanian television that the two men, Salem Saad bin Suweid, a Libyan, and Yasser Fatih Ibrahim, a Jordanian, both acknowledged belonging to al Qaeda.

He said bin Suweid trained in al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and entered Jordan on a fake Tunisian passport.

Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher said the two men had confessed to Foley's killing. A source close to the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the men were arrested on Dec. 3 and charged with plotting to carry out terror attacks and belonging to al Qaeda.

According to the statement, the two men admitted to connections with Ahmed al-Kalaylah, a Jordanian fugitive also known as Abu Musaab al-Zarkawi. The information minister said al-Zarqawi gave the two suspects machine guns, grenades and money to carry out terrorist attacks against embassies and foreign diplomats in Jordan.

Al-Zarqawi is believed to be a lieutenant of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. German officials say he was an al Qaeda combat commander appointed to orchestrate attacks on Europe.

CBS News correspondent Tom Fenton reports Al-Zarqawi is said to be an expert in handling deadly toxins, and is described by a German intelligence agent as being very dangerous.

U.S. officials have said al-Zarqawi fled Afghanistan after the U.S. military campaign there began late 2001. American officials say he went to Iran, then Iraq - where he underwent medical treatment - and then on to Syria.

Jordan sentenced Al-Zarqawi in absentia to 15 years in prison for conspiring to carry out terrorist attacks and for smuggling weapons into the country. Al-Zarqawi and Loa'i Mohammed Haj Bakr al-Saqa, a Syrian, were named as conspirators in a foiled plot to bomb tourist sites in Jordan during millennium celebrations.

The U.S. government welcomed the news of the arrests and praised the Jordanian government for its cooperation throughout the investigation. Asked about possible extradition of the suspects, State Department spokesman Louis Fintor said he had no information about U.S. designs on prosecuting the men.

The two arrested men were in possession of ammunition and guns used in the Foley attack, and the men admitted they had planned to smuggle surface-to-air missiles into Jordan, Adwan said.

Police also found ammunition and a plan for attacking "important targets" in Jordan, state-run TV quoted the minister as saying. Adwan said the Libyan entered Jordan on a fake Tunisian passport.

The minister said officials knew the pair were involved earlier but had withheld the information while the investigation continued.

The pair targeted Foley because he did not have a heavy security detail, Adwan said. They drove to his home the day of the killing in a rented car, the minister said. Bin Suweid hid behind Foley's car and shot him with a 7 mm pistol with a silencer when the diplomat came out of his home, Adwan said.

The gunman in the Foley attack escaped. Jordanian police rounded up dozens of Islamic militants for questioning on the day of the shooting.

Foley, originally from Oakland, Calif., was an administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development and was the first American diplomat assassinated in Jordan in decades.

In a voice recording thought to be by Osama bin Laden, made public last month, the speaker mentioned the Foley shooting amid a list of other attacks around the world believed to have been carried out by al Qaeda.

The killing shocked Jordan's pro-Western government, which has maintained close ties to Washington despite rising public anger over U.S. support for Israel and preparations for war against neighboring Iraq.

Anti-American demonstrations are less common and smaller here than in other Arab capitals, and usually tied to protests against Israel.

Nevertheless, more than half of Jordan's 5 million people are of Palestinian origin, some with close ties to Palestinian extremist groups. Jordan and Iraq maintain close commercial links, and there is considerable traffic between the two countries.

At the time of the shooting, Jordanian police said the killing appeared to have been carried out by professionals who had been following Foley for some time to determine his schedule.

The killing also stunned the estimated 3,000-strong American community in Jordan, which generally considers Amman safe, despite occasional warnings of security threats.

U.S. Ambassador Edward Gnehm condemned the shooting as a "cowardly, criminal act" but refused to call it terrorist-related.

Security was immediately increased at embassies and diplomatic missions. In an unusual scene for Amman, red beret-clad special forces riding jeeps mounted with machine-guns escorted diplomatic vehicles through the city.

Foley had been working on projects to deliver clean drinking water and health care to poor Jordanians and provide loans to small businesses. Foley, a father of three, worked for the Peace Corps in India and the Philippines and carried out USAID assignments in Bolivia, Peru, Zimbabwe and Jordan.

Gnehm said there had been no threats or warnings and denied that security had been lax outside the fortress-like walls of the sprawling embassy compound.