Foreign terrorists using suicide measures are the problem in Iraq...or maybe not?
Is it time for a new spin????
msnbc.msn.com
Sunday, November 13, 2005; Posted: 12:35 p.m. EST (17:35 GMT)
AMMAN, Jordan (CNN) -- An Iraqi woman in Jordanian custody has said she tried to blow herself up with her husband in an Amman hotel last week, in one of three attacks that killed 57 people.
"I tried to detonate mine but I failed," a woman identified as Saijida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi said in a confession that was broadcast on Jordanian television.
Wearing a white head scarf, black dress, and a belt outside her dress that apparently was going to be used in the attacks, the woman described entering Jordan from Iraq by truck with her husband. (Read the woman's full statement)
She said they met up with two other men, and she and her husband dressed as if they were going to attend a party.
They went into a hotel ballroom, and she stood in one corner of the room, while her husband stood in another, she said.
Her bomb failed to detonate, but her husband's belt did blow up, she said.
As people fled from the room, she went with them, she said.
Jordanian officials say al-Rishawi, 35, and her husband, Hussein Ali al-Shamari, went to the Radisson in Amman.
Authorities say 38 people attending a wedding reception were killed at the Radisson -- the majority of the 57 people killed in Wednesday's attacks at three Amman hotels.
Sunday's confession came as thousands of Jordanians took to the streets demonstrating against the blasts.
It was not immediately clear whom al-Rishawi was talking to in the video that contained her confession or exactly what had preceded it.
Authorities apparently had her place the belt outside her dress so the public could see it, although she allegedly wore it underneath her dress in the planned attack Wednesday.
Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Muasher told CNN al-Rishawi was not wearing the belt when she was apprehended.
Asked why Jordan aired the confession, Muasher said, "It is very important for the public to know exactly what happened. I think the public was a bit relieved also to know that there were no Jordanians involved."
He added: "Right now the important thing for us is to calm down our public. Our public has not been used to such attacks."
He denied that there was anything improper in airing her confession, and promised "she will go through a fair trial and will be treated exactly as any other defendant would."
The couple and two other Iraqi suicide bombers -- Rawad Jassem Mohammed Abed, 23, and Safaa Mohammed Ali, 23 -- traveled to Jordan from Iraq on November 5, Muasher said earlier Sunday.
Al-Rishawi is the sister of a "major terrorist" and high-ranking al Qaeda in Iraq member who was killed in Falluja, Iraq, Muasher said. He did not give details of her arrest, citing the ongoing investigation.
Jordan's Queen Rania told ABC's This Week that the woman arrested was the sister of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's "right-hand man." Al-Zarqawi is the Jordanian-born militant who leads al Qaeda in Iraq -- the group behind many of the most gruesome terrorist attacks in Iraq.
Jordanian officials have said the group was also behind the blasts Wednesday in Amman at the Radisson, the Grand Hyatt and the Days Inn that killed 57 bystanders and the three male bombers, and wounded more than 90 people.
A posting on a Web site used by al Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attacks, and a later posting said the bombers included a husband-and-wife team, identifying them as Abu Omeir and Om Omeir.
Jordan's King Abdullah II announced the woman's arrest just before Muasher's briefing.
"Obviously, the tragedies that happened in Jordan have happened in many parts of the world, from Asia to Georgia to all Muslim Arab countries to Europe and America," the king said.
"This is a phenomenon that brings us closer together because we know this is the only way that we will be able to overcome these extremists is if we are united and one."
The Web posting on the site used by al Qaeda in Iraq said the blasts were carried out by "the leader Abu Hobeib, Abu Moadh and Abu Omeir, and the fourth is our good sister Om Omeir who chose to accompany her husband on his road to martyrdom."
Abdullah, in an interview with CNN's Brent Sadler on Saturday, expressed scorn for the husband-and-wife bombing team.
"To see a wedding procession and to take your wife or your spouse with you into that wedding and blow yourself up -- these people are insane," he said.
But Abdullah stopped short of pledging unilateral action against the terror group al Qaeda in Iraq, which is led by Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
"Obviously we are going to crack down and take the fight to Zarqawi, but this is part of our coalition ... against this ... threat," he said. (Watch exclusive CNN interview with the king -- 10:24)
After the four traveled into Jordan by car November 5, they rented an apartment in an Amman suburb, Muasher said. Authorities believe they came by themselves, he said, and do not believe they had contact with any Jordanians.
'Terror knows no gender'
Although most suicide bombers are male, there have been female suicide bombers as well -- including Palestinians and Chechen Muslim separatists.
Rania, in the ABC interview Sunday, said she was not surprised that a woman allegedly planned to be a suicide bomber in Amman.
"What does surprise me is the nature of these acts, the fact that they could walk into a wedding and target innocent civilians celebrating, killing women, children and innocent families.
"I think this kind of terror knows no gender," she said. "It knows no nationality, no geography, no religion, no race, no color. Whether it's a man or a woman I think is irrelevant. What nationality, where they come from is irrelevant. The fact that they are able to commit such atrocities is what really shocks me."
Rania and Abdullah have openly opposed terrorism, including terrorist attacks in neighboring Israel, although they have frequently called on Israel to alter its responses to such attacks.
Rania told ABC that Jordanian officials hoped al-Rishawi will "be able to give us more clues and more understanding about who exactly this cell is and how they managed to get into Jordan and give us more details about the whole operation."
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