Jordan Scoffs At Assassination Claim

Jordanian officials questioned Muslim extremists Tuesday but dismissed claims by a little-known group that it was responsible for the killing of American diplomat Laurence Foley.

The group, calling itself Shurafaa' al-Urdun, or the Honorables of Jordan, sent a statement to the London-based Arabic daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi Monday saying Foley was killed to protest U.S. support for Israel and the "bloodshed in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Foley, a 60-year-old administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development, was walking to his car Monday when a gunman opened fire, police said. The gunman escaped.

The BBC reported that authorities have arrested a man they suspect of involvement in the killing.

Reports say there was an exchange of fire when the arrest took place in the southern city of Maan, and the suspect and two members of the security forces were injured.

Jordan stepped up security in the capital in the wake of the assassination, the first killing of an American diplomat in decades.

U.S. officials say they are working with Jordanian investigators, and have not ruled out terrorism.

But Jordanian officials who spoke on condition of anonymity dismissed the claim from Shurafaa' al-Urdun, which was unknown until last year when it claimed it was behind the killing of an Israeli businessman near where Foley lived. Security officials also rejected the claim.

A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a "handful" of extremists known to police were being questioned by intelligence officials.

He declined to provide details, but indicated some belonged to small militant cells or had been apprehended or jailed in the past.

One extremist, who had been sought for an attack on a police station last year, was apprehended following a shoot-out with police near the southern town of Maan, about 150 miles south of the Jordanian capital Amman. But police in Amman said Mohammad Ahmad al-Chalabi, also known as Abu-Sayyaf, had no connection to Foley's assassination.

Police were also checking witness reports that a man wearing a mask was seen outside Foley's house around the time of the killing.

Police questioned construction workers at a building project across the street from Foley's villa and other witnesses in the affluent Amman neighborhood.

The U.S. Embassy in Amman was closed for all but emergency business as diplomats made arrangements to send Foley's body to the United States.

Jordan's King Abdullah II and his wife, Queen Rania, visited the U.S. Embassy, where both signed a condolence book. The king and queen also met briefly with Foley's widow, Virginia, and later with USAID employees.

An embassy statement warned Americans to "exercise caution, be aware of their surroundings and vary travel routes and times." A Jordanian security official said the stepped-up security included more guards and plainclothes police to protect Western diplomats, some of whom also received police escorts.

U.S. Ambassador Edward Gnehm condemned the shooting as a "cowardly, criminal act." Foley had been working on projects to deliver clean drinking water and health care to poor Jordanians and provide loans to small businesses.

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.

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.

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, with Jordan exporting food, medicines and clothing in exchange for discounted oil.

The information minister, Mohammed Affash Adwan, promised to "deal seriously with this horrible crime." He said the attackers would not succeed in driving a wedge between Jordan and the United States, which is one of Jordan's main suppliers of development and military aid.

Jordan has eagerly joined the U.S.-led war on terrorism, sharing intelligence information with the United States on militant groups in the Arab world. It also has foiled several alleged terrorist plots and prosecuted suspects with alleged ties to al Qaeda.

Foley, a native of Boston, began his public service career with the Peace Corps in India in 1965. He joined USAID in 1988, and worked in Peru, Bolivia and Zimbabwe before heading to Jordan.