{"id":1168,"date":"2005-11-09T23:18:10","date_gmt":"2005-11-10T05:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=1168"},"modified":"2005-11-09T23:18:43","modified_gmt":"2005-11-10T05:18:43","slug":"jordan-57-killed-in-triple-suicide-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=1168","title":{"rendered":"Jordan: 57 Killed in Triple Suicide Attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today was yet another bloody day in the Middle East. The only (slight) surprise in that is that the crimson flowed in Jordan<\/a> rather than Iraq or Israel.<\/p>\n

Three suspected suicide bombers struck at three international hotels in Jordan’s capital, Amman, last night, killing at least 57 people and wounding an estimated 115 others.<\/p>\n

The explosions hit the Grand Hyatt, Radisson SAS and Days Inn hotels just before 9pm local time. The blast at the Radisson occurred during a wedding party with at least 300 guests.<\/p>\n

Reports suggested many of those killed in the blasts were Jordanians. The dead also included three Asian victims, possibly from China.<\/p>\n

In the aftermath, officials said they suspected suicide bombers were responsible for the explosions.<\/p>\n

While security officials said the attacks carried “the trademark of al-Qaeda,” authorities said it was too early to say for certain who was behind the atrocities.<\/p>\n

Jordan’s King Abdullah blamed a “deviant and misled group” for the atrocity: “The attacks targeted and killed innocent Jordanian civilians.”<\/p>\n

Last night suspicion was pointing at al-Qaeda’s leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is from Zarqa, near Amman.<\/p>\n

With the death toll expected to rise further, world leaders expressed outrage at the bombings. A White House spokesman said George Bush, president of the United States, condemned the attacks and had offered assistance in the investigation.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

The bombs – which came on the day of Mr Blair’s Commons defeat – were nearly simultaneous. The explosion at the Grand Hyatt completely shattered the stone entrance.<\/p>\n

One witness saw at least seven bodies removed and many more wounded carried out on stretchers. A US businessman said the bomb exploded in the lobby.<\/p>\n

“Several of my friends have died. The people who carried this out were cowards,” he said.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Jordan, a key US ally, has long been regarded as a prime target for attacks by Islamic militants.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Amman is a major centre for the United Nations in the area, but Jordan has been spared major attacks on foreigners, despite its proximity to Iraq.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jordan may have been spared up until today’s murderous terror, but it should be remembered that Jordan has been targeted before today<\/a>. Well, the luck ran out and the Islamist terrorists have apparently succeeded in expanding their bloody march against humanity.<\/p>\n

Some may talk about rights and protections and civility and atrocities, but I’ll be honest — whether involved in today’s carnage or not, I wouldn’t mind seeing Zarqawi’s head on a pike. Call me primative, but I believe it’s a matter of speaking a language that the target audience understands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today was yet another bloody day in the Middle East. The only (slight) surprise in that is that the crimson flowed in Jordan rather than Iraq or Israel. Three suspected suicide bombers struck at three international hotels in Jordan’s capital, Amman, last night, killing at least 57 people and wounding an estimated 115 others. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle-east","category-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}