American Among Dead In Jordan
At least one American was among the victim's of Wednesday's hotel bombings in Jordan's capital, the U.S. State Department said. The victim's name and hometown were being withheld until the family was notified.
In an Internet statement, Al Qaeda in Iraq linked the blasts at the Grand Hyatt, the Radisson SAS and the Days Inn hotels to the war in Iraq and called Amman the "backyard garden" for U.S. operations. At least 56 people were killed and more than a hundred were injured; at least two more Americans were among the hospitalized.
The al Qaeda claim, posted on a militant Internet site, also said Jordan became a target because it was "a backyard garden for the enemies of the religion, Jews and crusaders ... a filthy place for the traitors ... and a center for prostitution."
Police continued a broad security lockdown and authorities sent DNA samples for testing to identify the attackers. Land borders were reopened after being closed for nearly 12 hours.
In other developments:
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the U.S. has no independent knowledge of who is responsible for the Amman bombings.
"I think there is no question but they (al Qaeda) were responsible," said terrorism expert Neil Livingstone on CBS News' The Early Show. "Whether it's an affiliate group such as the al-Zarqawi movement in Iraq, which is probably attempting right now to open a second front, or whether it got some direction actually from al Qaeda itself, it's really not material to this. It's all part and parcel to the same movement."
The Amman protest was organized by Jordan's 14 professional and trade unions — made up of both hard-line Islamic groups and leftist political organizations — traditionally a vocal critic of the king's moderate and pro-Western policies.
Protesters — including women and children — gathered outside a bombed hotels, shouting, "Death to al-Zarqawi, the villain and the traitor!" Drivers honked the horns of vehicles decorated with Jordanian flags and posters of the king. A helicopter hovered overhead.
"We sacrifice our lives for you, Amman!" the protesters chanted.
The streets of the capital appeared deserted early Thursday, which was declared a day of mourning. Public and private offices were closed under government instructions, apparently to allow tightened security measures to take hold.
Government spokesman Bassel Tarawneh said the number of people killed likely would rise. The victims also included 15 Jordanians, five Iraqis, one Saudi, one Palestinian, three Chinese, one Indonesian; and more than two dozen others who had not been identified.
The first and possibly the worst of the three bombings occurred at the Radisson Hotel, reports CBS News correspondent David Hawkins. A suicide bomber blew himself up in the in middle of a wedding party there moments before the arrival of the bride and bridegroom.
"We thought it was fireworks for the wedding but I saw people falling to the ground," said Ahmed, a wedding guest at the five-star Radisson who did not give his surname. "I saw blood. There were people killed. It was ugly."
CBS News reporter Kristen Gillespie, who lives a block away from the hotels, was on the scene soon after the explosions, and says as bodies were being removed from the hotels, dozens of guests milled around,
.The hotels, frequented by Israelis and Americans among other foreign guests, have long been on al Qaeda's hit list.
Iraqi government spokesman Laith Kubba said the attack should alert Jordan that it needed to stop hosting former members of Saddam Hussein's regime.
"I hope that these attacks will wake up the `Jordanian street' to end their sympathy with Saddam's remnants ... who exploit the freedom in this country to have a safe shelter to plot their criminal acts against Iraqis."
He also said Iraqis may have had a hand in the attacks.
"The al Qaeda organization has become as a plague that affected Iraq and is now transmitted by the same rats to other countries. A lot of Iraqis, especially former intelligence and army officers, joined this criminal cell," Kubba said.
"Abdullah is going to crack down," agreed Livingstone. "They have a strong security apparatus in Jordan already."
"They can learn from the Saudi example," the CEO of the security firm Global Options said. "Eighteen months ago the Saudis were on the hot seat. That was going to be the second front. Now the Saudis cracked down very, very strongly against the cells that were in Saudi Arabia at the time. And it's been very quiet there ever since. I think that's what Abdullah is going to do in Jordan."
Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Muasher said shortly after the blasts that al-Zarqawi was a "prime suspect." The Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi is known for his animosity to the country's Hashemite monarchy. The claim of responsibility did not name King Abdullah II but twice referred to the "tyrant of Jordan."
The three hotels have security guards hired from a private Jordanian firm stationed in the reception areas. Each of the hotels has one or two police cars guarding the buildings around the clock, but it's not enough, says Livingstone, CEO of the security firm Global Options.
"I go into that region. And I will tell you there are many hotels in the Middle East, in the Gulf area and so on, that have almost no security whatsoever," he told Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen. "They need better security and they need to really crack down on Islamic dissidents inside these countries, because they've tolerated them in the past and this is what happens."