Amman- Jordanian authorities have found the launcher that fired three Katyusha rockets from a hilltop warehouse, including one that narrowly missed a U.S. naval ship docked at the Red Sea resort of Aqba, Jordan”s Interior Minister Awni Yirfas announced on Saturday.

The most serious strike against the U.S. Navy since the USS Cole bombing in Yemen nearly five years ago killed a Jordanian soldier Friday, wounded another, and sparked a massive nationwide manhunt for the culprits involved. Two other rockets were fired toward Israel from the same warehouse, which is located in the hills on Aqaba”s northern edge about 8 kilometers from the port.

One fell short and hit the wall of the Princess Hiya military hospital and the other landed inside Israel close to Eilat airport, lightly wounding a taxi driver. Jordanian sources indicated that the hospital did not suffer any material damages from the attack.

&#34We have found the rocket launcher in the warehouse from where they fired,&#34 Yirfas told The Associated Press in what marked one of the first key breakthroughs in the investigation.

&#34The investigation is still underway and issues related to it will remain secret so it would not harm the process,&#34 Yirfas said. &#34I cannot give you the names or say if we are looking for the perpetrators in the desert or any other place.&#34

The government had decided on Friday to close its airspace and territorial waters to stop the perpetrators from fleeing the scene. The Jordanian Higher Security Council held an emergency meeting chaired by Prince Hashem bin Hussein, the deputy monarch.

Eyewitnesses told Asharq Al Awsat that a huge explosion shook the resort town around 8:30 am local time (5:30 am GMT) when a rocker misfired and hit a warehouse used by the Jordanian military and is thought to hold highly flammable material. Large flames could be seen from the port where the two ships were docking.

Jordanian security forces are hunting for six people, including one Syrian and several Egyptians and Iraqis, who are believed to have escaped in a vehicle with Kuwaiti license plates after firing the rockets.

Mystery surrounds the source of the rockets, several thousand of which are believed to be in the possession of Lebanon”s Shiite Muslim militant group, Hizballah, which is backed by Iran and Syria. Jordanian officials have not yet commented on where they think the rockets originated nor who might have provided them.

An Al-Qaeda-linked group, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, said in an Internet statement that it staged the attack, but the claim could not be authenticated. The same group was among several militant organizations that claimed responsibility for terror bombings in three Egyptian Sinai Peninsula resorts during the past year, which killed around 100 people.

Jordan”s King Abdullah II, who is in Russia on a state visit, condemned Friday”s attacks.

&#34This criminal attack will not deter Jordan from carrying out the true message of Islam which terrorists are trying to distort,&#34 Abdullah said in a statement carried by the state-run Petra news agency.

The rocket firings were the first violence in the peaceful port on Jordan”s tiny strip of coastline wedged next to Israel at the northern end of the Red Sea for 37 years. Until last year, the Red Sea area including Egypt”s Sinai, had seen no violence, but since October the area has seen a string of attacks. These include the Egyptian resort bombings in Sharm el-Sheik and Taba and a recent roadside bomb blast in the northern Sinai that targeted a vehicle belonging to the Multinational Force and Observers, which is helping monitor the 1979 Egypt-Israeli peace deal.

One of Friday”s rocket sailed over the USS Ashland”s bow and hit a nearby Jordanian military warehouse that U.S. forces use to store goods bound for Iraq, killing one Jordanian soldier and wounding another. No Americans were injured.

The Ashland, an amphibious assault ship, had docked on August 13 with the helicopter carrier USS Kearsarge at Aqaba”s port for joint exercises with Jordan”s military.

Despite the attacks, shopkeepers in Aqaba said it was business as usual on Saturday, with beaches and seaside cafes packed with foreigners and Jordanians and the resort”s streets crowded. Hotels also reported no cancellations or early departures.

&#34Life is very normal. The cafe is full of foreign tourists who arrived early in the morning to swim,&#34 said kiosk owner Abdul Hakim Al-Abed, 40. &#34We didn”t hear anything during the blast.&#34

Investigators are looking into how 1.5 meter long Katyusha rockets entered Jordan, which has a strong security posture due to its vicinity to Israel, the Palestinian territories and Iraq. It has also been targeted previously by Islamic extremists.

In December 2001, three Hizballah members were arrested in Jordan after entering through Syria to deliver Katyusha rockets to Palestinian militants in the bordering West Bank. Following intense diplomatic contacts by Hizballah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, Jordanian authorities returned the three to Lebanon in May, 2002.