The triple hotel bombings in the Jordanian capital, Amman, Wednesday night demonstrates al-Qaida's persistence in pursuing its deadly plans in attacking American interests around the world while causing as many casualties as possible.Al-Qaida's implementation of the so-called Millennium Plot was initially meant to strike at foreign hotels in Amman almost six years ago on New Year's Eve 2000. Jordanian security forces, however, uncovered the initial plot, preventing the worst, and millennium festivities were able to proceed unhindered. But late Wednesday night, terrorists detonated three bombs at U.S.-run hotels, killing about 67 people and injuring more than 180.
The almost-simultaneous triple bombing of the Grand Hyatt, the Radisson-SAS and the Days Inn hotels in Amman carries the hallmark of al-Qaida. Previous tactics have shown the groups' preference to hit at three separate targets within minutes of one another. The Amman attacks fit the same pattern, and at least one of the hotels, the Radisson, was reported to be have been on the initial Millennium attack list.
Jordanian officials say it is still to early to identify who is responsible for the blasts, but all indication seem to point to al-Qaida.
If this does indeed turn out to be the work of al-Qaida, or possibly that of its Iraqi offshoot headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, himself a Jordanian citizen, it offers new, and rather worrying insight into the workings - and persistence -- of the pan-Islamist terror organization that now is believed to stretch from Europe and North America to Australia.
What these latest attacks demonstrate is that despite successes by security forces in preventing the Millennium plot (and numerous others) from being carried out almost six years ago, al-Qaida did not give up on the plan. Instead, it simply bided its time and waited - almost six years -- until it could come back and strike.
This would demand that antiterrorist forces around the world revisit their previous successes against terrorist groups and immediately reassess existing security measures. It would also mean unparalleled pressure on anti-terror forces already overtaxed by existing threats to pull out their archived successes and plan for a possible second wave attack, as in the case of the three Amman hotels Wednesday night.
Jordan offers a particularly challenge as well as an unusual attraction for Islamist terrorists; the challenge stems from the fact that Jordan's security is among the sternest, if not the best in the Middle East. Ever since September 1970, when the Jordanian military fought a bloody civil war with Palestinian guerrillas, Jordanians have taken their security very seriously. Jordanian security agents are omnipresent around the kingdom, from the country's borders, ports, and airports as well as in major hotels and tourist facilities.
Filtering through Jordan's tight security network also indicates the group's ability to bypass, or possibly even infiltrate, the country's security apparatus. It also shows that airtight security in a functioning society is an impossibility.
The attraction Jordan offers to terrorists as a viable target is indeed multiple. First, are the large numbers of Americans who transit through the Hashemite Kingdom on any given day. With the war in neighboring Iraq still raging, Amman offers a relatively safe rear base to American military, journalists and businessmen constantly jumping in and out of war-torn Iraq. At least it had until Wednesday night.
Second, as one of the key U.S. allies in the Middle East and with King Abdullah enjoying excellent relations with the United States and with the Bush administration, hitting Jordan is indirectly hitting at the United States.
Third, Jordan is one of the few Arab countries to have established diplomatic relations with Israel, a fact that continues to upset Islamist organizations, such as al-Qaida and Zarqawi's group. The sight of the Star of David floating over the Israeli embassy in Amman angers many who have not accepted Jordan's cordial relations with the Jewish state. A large portion of Jordan's population is, in fact, Palestinian.
Fourth, Jordan offers an easy target given its long and porous border with Iraq where al-Qaida and its sympathizers are known to operate and are able to move back and forth with relative freedom. Transporting men and explosives across the Iraqi border from either Syria and/or Jordan should be a relatively easy feat for operatives familiar with the terrain.
Wednesday's Amman hotel attacks come only a few months after a failed attempt to hit a U.S. warship in the Jordanian port of Aqaba. A number of observers in the area fear that Islamist terrorists will continue to feed off two key unsolved issues in the Middle East: The lingering war in Iraq and the unsettled Palestinian question.