One held in bomb targeting Israeli diplomats, more arrests expected in “Hezbollah-style” attack
Jordanian security forces are holding a taxi driver who they suspect planted an explosive device that targeted an Israeli diplomatic convoy traveling from the Jordanian capital city of Amman to Israel, Arab TV reported overnight.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the explosion, which left a large crater at the attack site just 13 miles from the Allenby Bridge, Jordan’s main border crossing into Israel.
The initial investigation suggests that the type and way the bombs were planted is reminiscent of the sort of road-side attacks Hezbollah used to target Israeli troops when they were operating in Lebanon prior to the unilateral Israeli withdrawal in 2000.
According to reports in the Israeli media, officials called the bombing “a well-planned ambush” and credited the fact that the device’s timing was apparently a few seconds off with preventing injuries or worse among those riding in the diplomatic convoy. After the bomb went off, the cars reportedly sped to a nearby Jordanian Army base. The Jordanian Army then imposed a closure on the area and carried out searches, arresting one person.
Israeli officials are still not sure what the taxi driver’s connection to the blast is, but have said that they expect the Jordanians to make more arrests soon.
Meanwhile, according to Yediot Aharonot, Jordanian investigators “are still uncertain whether the attack was carried out by global Jihad activists, Hezbollah members, or possibly Hamas men. According to some estimates, the attack involved the work of many terrorists, including planners, lookouts, and collaborators.”
The agencies involved still are avoiding official comment. A spokeswoman for the Israeli embassy in Amman said, “All I can say now is that everyone is fine.”
Comments (0) »Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 12:07 PM | Stand For Israel
Egypt pressuring Israel to accept Hamas demands on Shalit
Ha’aretz reports:
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has advised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept Hamas’ demands for a prisoner swap deal that would see the release of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, the Saudi daily Al-Madina reported on Friday.
According to the report, Mubarak told Netanyahu during their talks in Cairo earlier this week that Hamas would not give up on the list of prisoners it wants freed in the swap.
If Israel agrees to show some flexibility on the matter, Mubarak was reported as saying, then Egypt could guarantee that the deal go through and even convince Hamas to begin negotiating for a long-term cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s main resistance has been freeing a number of terrorists being held for involvement in some of the worst terrorist attacks, as we wrote last week, including notably Marwan Barghouti and Ahmed Sadat:
Barghouti is believed to have master-minded multiple terror attacks and currently imprisoned for his roles in attacks that killed 5 people. (He was charged with the deaths of an additional 33, but was aquitted for insufficient evidence.) Sadat headed the terrorist group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and is being held for his role in the 2001 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi.
In an unfortunate comment on the future prospects for peace-making with the Palestinian Authority, Barghouti is often named one of the strongest candidates to lead the PA.
Past Israeli policy dictated not releasing terrorists “with blood on their hands,” meaning those who were directly responsible for killing Israelis, but recent prisoner exchanges have departed from this. In 2008, Israel released Samir Kuntar, who had been in prison since a botched 1979 attempt at kidnapping an Israeli family. The cell he headed kidnapped the father and a daughter of the Haran family. The mother survived by hiding with their infant daughter and a neighbor who happened to be in the house but, tragically, the mother accidentally smothered the baby to death in an attempt to quiet her cries.
When police closed in on the terror cell…
Read More » Comments (1) »Friday, January 1st, 2010 at 2:20 PM | Stand For Israel
Round-up: Obama pushes Lebanon on smuggling, girl stabbed in West Bank, Chicago terror trial
During a meeting with the Lebanese President Michel Sleiman yesterday, President Obama pressed Lebanon to crack down on arms smuggling to Hezbollah. Israel has criticized the 12,000-strong UN Peace-keeper force stationed in southern Lebanon for doing nothing to stop arms from reaching the terrorist group, but the UN says that it’s not their job and that the Lebanese authorities are responsible for it.
A 20-year-old Israeli woman was stabbed in the back yesterday at the Gush Etzion junction, which is a 10-minute drive south of Jerusalem. The young woman was waiting at a bus stop when a terrorist jumped out of a cab at attacked her. The girl was taken the hospital; her attacker remained at large.
Prosecutors in the Chicago trial of an American charged with aiding and abetting the terrorists who murdered 166 people in Mumbai last November not only knew in advance what the planners intended to do, but sent them “congratulations” after the fact. Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a 48-year-old businessman, is charged with helping fellow Chicagoan David Coleman Headley, 49, gather information to help the Mumbai terrorists carry out their plan.
Comments (0) »Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 at 1:34 PM | Stand For Israel
Photos from boat seizure
A view of the "Francop" heading toward the harbor in Ashdod. (ISRANET)
IDF soldiers inspect rocket launchers found among the weapons. (ISRANET)
Cartons of weapons hiddens among sacks of cargo. (ISRANET)
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 4:28 PM | David Kuner
Israel intercepts Iranian ‘care package’
Iran really should give up on shipping: A view of weapons intended for the Palestinian Authority captured in 2002 from the Karine-A
Israeli commando sailors intercepted a commercial ship this morning that–unbeknownst to its crew–was ferrying tons of weapons intended for Hezbullah and, ultimately, for use against Israeli cities. Among the hundreds of civilian cargo containers the ship carried were dozens of containers disguised as civilian cargo — but that held rockets, missiles and other weapons sent by Iran to its proxy organization, Hezbollah.
Hezbollah leaders are likely feeling the same frustration felt by Yasser Arafat and other leaders of the Palestinian Authority in 2002 when IDF sailors surprised the crew of the Karine-A, another cargo ship that turned out to be carrying non-civilian cargo — 50 tons of Iranian weapons headed to Gaza.
Ironically, the huge cache of rockets, explosive, sniper rifles and other assorted goodies was intercepted in the middle of meetings between Arafat and American officials designed to re-start stalled peace talks.
The meetings didn’t go well.
Comments (0) »Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 11:31 AM | Stand For Israel
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