AMMAN: Jordan foiled a major plot by an Al Qaeda-linked cell to destabilise the key US ally’s security by bombing shopping centres and assassinating Western diplomats, state television said yesterday.
Security forces detained 11 suspects in connection with a plot going on since June to carry out attacks in the capital Amman using smuggled weapons and explosives brought from Syria, according to security officials cited by television.
“Their plans included getting explosives and mortars from Syria,” a security source said.
The attacks, aimed at western and commercial areas, would likely have resulted in the death of thousands, according to Jordanian authorities.
The security source said the suspects had manufactured explosives “aimed at inflicting the heaviest human losses possible.”
Jordan is a key US ally in the Middle East and Israel’s peace partner. The Arab kingdom has often been targeted by Al Qaeda and other Islamic militants.
Four Qaeda suspects killed in Yemen drone strike
SANA’A: Four alleged members of the Al Qaeda extremist network were killed in Yemen yesterday in a strike presumed to have been carried out by a US drone against their vehicle in Maarib province east of Sana’a, a tribal source said. “A drone fired a missile at a car which had four Al Qaeda militants in it, destroying the vehicle and killing the occupants,” the source added, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The drone strike, the second in four days, took place in the early evening in the Hami and Al Damashqa area 17km east of Maarib city, the same source said.
On Thursday, rockets fired from a drone near the southern city of Jaar in Abyan province killed at least seven suspected members of the terror network, including a local leader, an official in the restive region said.
Agencies
