Two arrested for US diplomat's killing

JORDAN: The Jordanian government announced on Saturday that two men affiliated with al-Qaeda had been arrested for the murder of a US diplomat in Amman in October.

The country's Information Minister, Mr Mohammad Adwan, said that a Libyan, Mr Salem bin Suweid, is accused of shooting dead the USAID official, Mr Lawrence Foley (60), outside his Amman home on October 28th.

Mr bin Suweid's Jordanian accomplice, Mr Yasser Fathi Ibrahim, allegedly waited in a getaway car.

The assassination, the first ever of a Western diplomat in Jordan, shocked the pro-Western political establishment.

The minister revealed that Mr bin Suweid, who received training in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, entered the kingdom on a forged Tunisian passport. Both suspects confessed to the murder and said that it had been commissioned by a senior al-Qaeda official, a Jordanian, Mr Fadel Nazzal Khalayleh, also known as Abu Musaab Zarqawi, who has been a fugitive since 1999.

Mr Zarqawi is said to have paid the suspects $18,000 and supplied them with weapons - including the 7mm gun with silencer used to kill Mr Foley - hand grenades, and tear gas canisters which were smuggled into Jordan.

Mr Adwan said Mr Zarqawi had also "made arrangements to smuggle a number of missiles into the kingdom" with the aim of mounting other operations. The suspects were set to receive another $32,000 to carry out other orders.

Last year, Mr Zarqawi was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison with hard labour for planning terrorist attacks on tourist and religious sites in Jordan during millennium celebrations. US officials claim he fled Afghanistan for Iran in 2001, went to Baghdad for medical treatment and then to Syria before disappearing.

The authorities apparently fixed on Mr bin Suweid early in the investigation because on the day of the murder he received a phone call from abroad in which an aide to Mr Zarqawi asked about "the mission".

Mr bin Suweid replied that it had been accomplished and was congratulated. The two men were arrested on December 3rd.

In Washington, a US State Department spokesman, Mr Louis Fintor, said: "We deeply appreciate the excellent support and co-operation the Jordanian government has provided throughout this investigation and we continue to consult closely with them regarding these arrests."