Three more militants have been arrested since April in connection with an al-Qaida-linked plot to attack the U.S. Embassy and Jordanian government offices with chemical and conventional weapons, officials said Sunday. The arrests announced Sunday bring to nine the number detained in the alleged plot. Four others were killed in a police shootout on April 20, while another four remain at large, including Jordanian militant Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi. They said the 17 militants were all affiliated with a previously unknown group called Kata'eb al-Tawhid, Arabic for the Battalions of Monotheism, which is linked to the al-Qaida terror organization.
| If it's got "Tawhid" in the title it's usually Zarqawi... |
Azmi al-Jayousi, the alleged mastermind of the Jordan-based terror cell who was captured in April, has confessed to military prosecutors about what would have been al-Qaida's first chemical attack, the officials added. Jordanian officials say the plot targeted the Jordanian prime minister's office, the secret service agency, the U.S. Embassy in Jordan and other sites. The suspects are expected to be charged in a military court with conspiracy to commit terror. No trial date has been set. In April, Jordan announced it had foiled a terrorist plot blamed on al-Zarqawi. Jordanian authorities said then the suspects plotted to use chemicals and explosives to blow up vital institutions, including Jordan's intelligence department — an attack officials say would have killed thousands of people. Al-Jayousi and some other suspects in detention had said in televised confessions that their terror plot was hatched and financed by al-Zarqawi. In the audiotape posted on the Internet in May, a man who identified himself al-Zarqawi acknowledged that his group was behind the plot targeting, but denied chemical weapons were to be used.
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