Jordan said on Saturday it had detained two members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network for the killing of a U.S. Diplomat in Amman in October.
Laurence Foley was shot dead in front of his house in Amman on the morning of October 28 as he was walking to his car. He was the director of the U.S. Agency for International Development programs in Jordan.
Jordanian Information Minister Mohammad al-Adwan told CNN television: "Our security authorities arrested some while ago the two main suspects, the killer and his accomplice. They both belong to al Qaeda network."
A government statement, quoted by CNN, named the two men as Salem Sa'ed Salem bin Suweid, a Libyan national, and Yasser Fathi Ibrahim, a Jordanian.
The statement said bin Suweid "underwent military training in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan" and that he entered Jordan a few months ago "using a forged Tunisian passport." It said bin Suwdeid and Ibrahim confessed to being members of al-Qaeda and were affiliated with a lieutenant of Osama bin Laden known as Abu Musa'ab Al-Zarqawi.
Zarqawi left Jordan in 1999 and has been convicted in absentia with a plot to bomb tourist hotels in Amman during the millennium celebrations.
He reportedly fled Afghanistan after U.S. operations started there, going first to Iran, then Iraq, where he was said to have received medical treatment. (Albawabaa.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
