Multiple plots to attack American targets in Jordan have been broken up since April but the threat to US citizens and interests in the country remains high, the State Department said on Tuesday. The department, through the US embassy in Amman, said extremists affiliated with Iraq's most wanted man, Jordanian-born Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, and Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network, "continue to call for violence against Americans." "The embassy has received credible reports that several plots to attack American interests in Jordan have been disrupted over the past six months," it said in a notice to US citizens issued on Monday. "Persons belonging to regional terrorist groups loyal to Abu Musab Al Zarqawi and Al Qaeda are believed to be present in Jordan, and intent on harming Americans," it said.
The embassy said the recent attacks in Egypt's eastern Sinai peninsula were a sign of the "seriousness of the continuing threat in the region" and noted that the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict and violence in Iraq "continue to stoke regional tensions." |