Suspected Terrorists Reportedly Planned Attacks in Jordan

Suspected terrorists arrested during the last few weeks planned attacks with a chemical bomb and poison gas in Jordan that could have killed thousands, Associated Press reported today (see GSN, April 16).

Targets for the simultaneous attacks included the U.S. Embassy in Amman, other foreign diplomatic missions, the Jordanian prime minister’s office, a Jordanian intelligence facility and civilian targets, according to officials.

The chemical bomb attack on the intelligence service could have killed up to 20,000 people, the officials said. 

The plot was foiled by arrests in March and earlier this month of conspirators in a cell linked to al-Qaeda, they said. The arrests were made after suspects entered Jordan from Syria in at least three vehicles carrying explosives, detonators and other bomb-making materials, AP reported.

Jordanian King Abdullah II published a letter last week praising the authorities who led the effort.

Failure to uncover the plot would have resulted in “a crime that would have been unprecedented in the country in terms of the size of explosives mounted on the vehicles and the methods of carrying out the attacks or the civilian locations chosen,” the letter said.

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