Jordan is reported to have uncovered a terrorist cell led by members of the Al Qaeda network and another radical Islamic group. Newspaper reports quoting from charge sheets prepared by a military prosecutor says those being held include 13 Jordanians and two Iraqis. It says they are accused of "conspiracy to carry out terrorist attacks against US and Israeli targets across the world." The reports say the accused also plotted to attack tourists, foreigners and members of Jordan's security forces within Jordan itself. The prosecutor says the 15 belonged to Al Qaeda and Ansar al-Islam, an extremist Iraqi Kurdish group. The reports say he built up his case after the arrest in March of a Jordanian suspect, Ahmad al-Riyati, by US troops in Iraqi Kurdistan and his subsequent extradition to Jordan.
| I don't know that it's a "new" terror cell, since one of Ansar's components is al-Tawhid, which was originally a stand-alone operation dedicated to tormenting the Jordanian government. Zarqawi seems to be the effective leader of the reconstituted Ansar, and its cadres are probably Tawhid bad guys who were out of the range of fire while the Kurdish yokels were being blown away back in the early days of the war. |
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