Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Defendants in Aqaba attack Planned to Hit American Embassy | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Amman, Jordan, Asharq Al-Awsat- Syrian national Muhammad Hasan Abdullah al-Sahli, the principal defendant in the case of the al-Aqaba ”s terrorist bombings, has admitted that the operation targeted the US Embassy before the plan was changed to attack two US destroyers in the city”s port.

The investigations that the concerned Jordanian security authorities carried out with Al-Sahli reveled that one of Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi”s aides visited him three times, was his guest in his house in Amman”s Nazzal neighborhood, and went out all day to meet other people but did not tell Al-Sahli about his meetings and contacts but only slept in his house. He added that the last time he was his guest was two months before Al-Aqaba bombings.

Al-Sahli also confessed that the US Embassy in Amman was the target of the operation and that the plan involved positioning four rockets on a hill opposite the US Embassy from the Marj al-Hamam direction. He added that preparations were underway to carry out the plan but a major change happened when &#34Al-Qaeda&#34 organization was informed that two US destroyers had arrived at Jordan”s Al-Aqaba Port and would unload their cargo of weapons and military equipment in the port for transporting to Iraq overland to be used in the fight against the insurgents in western Iraq.