Bombs at three hotels kill at least 57 in Jordan

Three suspected suicide bombers blew themselves up at three international hotels in Jordan's capital yesterday, killing at least 57 people and wounding scores more, witnesses, security sources and media said.

Reuters witnesses said there had been explosions at the Radisson SAS, where a wedding party was taking place, and Grand Hyatt hotels in Amman. Jordan's official news agency Petra said a third blast had hit the Days Inn hotel in the city.

The agency said the blasts were caused by suspected suicide bombers. Police sources earlier told Reuters the Radisson blast had been caused by a bomb placed in a false ceiling.

Jordanian police spokesman Captain Bashir al-Da'jeh told Al Jazeera television: "At 9 this evening, there were three terrorist explosions in three hotels in Amman. There are a number of dead and wounded. They are believed to have been carried out by suicide bombers."

Jordan's King Abdullah blamed a "deviant and misled group" for the attacks, in a statement carried by Petra. "The attacks targeted and killed innocent Jordanian civilians," he said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The explosion at the Radisson ripped through a banqueting room where about 250 people were attending a wedding reception, witnesses said. They said the room was torn apart.

A security source told Reuters that at least 57 people were killed in the three blasts and many were wounded.

A Reuters correspondent at the Radisson earlier said five people were killed there and more than 12 others wounded. Another correspondent at the Hyatt hotel said at least 40 were wounded, some seriously.

Witnesses said many Western tourists were staying at the three hotels. The Radisson is known to be popular with Israeli tourists, but there was no confirmation of the nationality of any of the dead or wounded.

Police threw up roadblocks around the hotels and embassies in the city, causing traffic chaos.

Reuters television footage showed a fleet of ambulances and fire vehicles outside the hotels and workers sweeping up glass and debris.

The general manager of the nine-storey Hyatt, Otto Steenbeek, told reporters: "There was an explosion in the bar area of the hotel just before 9 p.m. There are many casualties but we don't have any numbers."

Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service said it had offered to send medical aid to Jordan, including transport for any wishing to receive treatment in Israel.

Jordan has so far been spared major attacks on foreigners despite its proximity to Iraq and popularity as a tourist destination, but the authorities had long been braced for trouble.

In one near miss, Katyusha rockets were fired at two US warships in Jordan's Red Sea port of Aqaba in August, narrowly missing their targets and instead hitting civilian buildings and the nearby Israeli port of Eilat. Jordanian security officials said they believed al Qaeda was involved in the attack.

Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, hails from the poor town of Zarqa just outside Amman. The capital is a major centre for the United Nations in the region.

In Washington, a US counterterrorism official said: "Certainly there's suspicion that Zarqawi may have culpability here. But at this point it's too early to tell."

A Western security expert familiar with Jordan said Zarqawi would be a prime suspect behind the apparently coordinated suicide attacks, which bore the clear mark of al Qaeda.

Zarqawi was jailed by Jordan in 1996 but freed under amnesty by King Abdullah on taking office three years later.

"This clearly would be something very personal to him - not just ideological, but a grudge match," Hungary-based Sebestyen Gorka said.