The Wire

Jordan remains on a knife-edge as the country comes to terms with the impact of recent terrorist attacks in Amman. The attacks, carried out last week, saw 57 people killed. It has been claimed that Jordanian-born, now Iraqi-based insurgent Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is behind the attacks, which were carried out by Iraqi nationals who blew themselves up in so called “suicide attacks”. At least one observer the Wire has spoken to has claimed that al Zarkarwi carried out the attacks in an attempting to destabilize his home country, with the hope that eventually overthrowing the monarchy of Jordanian King Abdullah the second. And this week has seen the televised confession of an Iraqi women who failed in her bid to blow her self up alongside her husband, who did managed to detonate his explosives. But while there has been outrage against the bombings, questions are also being asked about whether the attacks have come about because of Jordan’s support for the US-led invasion of neighboring Iraq. This report begins with comments from Hasan Abunimah, a former Jordanian ambassador to the UN and a weekly columnist for English and Arabic newspapers in Amman. He described the mood amongst Jordanians in Amman.