Jordanians foil Al Qaeda chemical attack that could have killed thousands.
The Jordanian-born Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, the current one-legged leader of Al Qaeda operations in Iraq, is thought to have been behind an attempted chemical bomb attack on the land of his birth. It involved “a chemical bomb that would have killed as many as 20,000 people and caused large-scale destruction within a half-mile radius.” (*) The attack was foiled and several arrests were made.
Jordanian officials say the arrests occurred after suspected militants entered Jordan from neighboring Syria in at least three vehicles filled with explosives, detonators and raw material to be used in bomb-making.
Syrian officials have denied the claims.
Among those arrested last week were two Palestinian militants identified as Suleiman Darweesh and Muwafaq Adwan, thought to be close associates of al-Zarqawi.
Another Palestinian militant, Azmi al-Jayoussi, is thought to be at large.
There is no word on whether the bomb itself was discovered or analyzed. Perhaps its origin could be traced.
Syria had chemical WMD before the Iraq war began (†), but I wonder if the bomb could have come from Saddam’s stockpile.