US Embassy attack foiled in Jordan

Eleven Jordanians were in jail Monday in an alleged major al-Qaida-linked plot to attack civilian and government targets in Amman, including the U.S. Embassy. The alleged two-pronged plot -- which officials said could have killed hundreds of citizens and foreigners -- called first for coordinated suicide bombings of shopping malls and cafes in the Jordanian capital as a diversionary tactic to draw police and security attention, the Jordan news agency Petra reported. These simultaneous attacks would be followed by the plotters\' main target -- government buildings and embassies in southern Amman\'s affluent Abdoun district, the agency said. Those buildings would be barraged with mortar shells and militia-style guerrilla tactics, the agency said, citing a government statement. A Western official briefed on details of the plot told The Washington Post the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy in Amman was among the targets. The State Department had no immediate comment on the plot and declined to confirm or deny accounts the embassy had been on the target list. Jordan is an important U.S. ally and has a peace treaty with neighboring Israel. A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declined to comment to The New York Times Sunday night if Israeli intelligence had helped Jordanian authorities in the case. The choice of attack targets and explosive types -- including munitions intended for the Syrian conflict -- were intended to ensure \"the highest death toll,\" the statement said. They also intended to destabilize Jordan\'s pro-Western government with massive blows against the country\'s government institutions and tourism-dependent economy, officials cited by the Post said. The alleged plotters were described by Jordan as \"supporters\" of al-Qaida in Iraq, an al-Qaida branch founded in 2003 after the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq. The franchise was first led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The suspects\' foiled plot had allegedly sought to eclipse a series of coordinated bomb attacks Zarqawi ordered on Amman Nov. 9, 2005, that killed 60 people and injured 115 others in three hotels. The suspects\' group called itself 11-9 the Second, evidently referring to the numerical way of spelling out Nov. 9. Zarqawi was killed by U.S. forces in 2006. Officials did not say if the alleged conspirators had planned to carry out their foiled attack Nov. 9. They had been staking out locations for at least four months and had amassed a stockpile of explosives and weapons from Syrian battlefields, Jordanian Information Minister Samih Maayatah told reporters Sunday. The suspected terrorists -- who had just returned from Syria and were found with explosives including TNT -- planned to get more explosives and weapons from Syria before launching the attacks, Maayatah said. The alleged plotters also posted their bomb-making methods online for others to use. When the arrests were made by Jordan\'s General Intelligence Directorate, part of the armed forces, the group was in the process of choosing suicide bombers, Maayatah said. The intelligence service also seized computers, cameras and forged documents, he said.