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The
bomber targeted a wedding. (Reuters)
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Additional
Reporting by Bassiouni Al-Wakil, IOL Staff
AMMAN,
November 11, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Victims of
the triple terrorist blasts in Jordan were mostly "common
folks", who gathered to celebrate a wedding, forcing survivors
and Jordanians to wonder "why".
"Guests
of the wedding reception were all simple people who had nothing to do
with politics," said Ahmed Khanfar, a relative of the bridegroom
whose wedding at the Radisson hotel in the Jordanian capital Amman was
the target of one of the suicide bombers Wednesday, November 9.
Speaking
to IOL Friday, November 11, Khanfar added "the suicide bomber was
so keen on killing the highest possible number of people, so he waited
until all family members and guests arrived and only then he detonated
himself."
Three
blasts rattled the three luxury hotels of Radisson SAS, Hyatt and Days
Inn hotels, killing 57 people and injuring scores.
Inside
the Radisson's grand ballroom were grim reminders of a wedding
reception devastated when a suicide bomber blew himself up as the
party was in full swing: a bloodied evening slipper, mangled
furniture, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"I
was getting married, it was my wedding," the distraught groom,
Ashraf Al-Akhras, told Reuters.
The
32-year-old lost 10 family members, including his father, in the
blast.
"There
were between 250-280 people in the wedding party. The suicide bomber
blew himself up as the bride and groom prepared to enter the
ballroom," said Radisson senior manager Bassem Al-Banna.
"I
ran down and saw bodies everywhere. Five of them were smoking. All of
them were bloody," Saeed Abu Hasna, chief of the intensive care
unit at the Al-Dawam Hospital in the United Arab Emirates, who was
residing at the hotel, said.
"I
will never forget this. It was a horrible, horrible scene."
Demos
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Jordanians
vent anger at "blind terror". (Reuters)
|
In
the streets, most demonstrators saved their wrath for Jordanian-born
Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi.
On
foot, in cars or in school buses, protesters packed the one-kilometer
avenue that separates the Radisson SAS from the Grand Hyatt, said the
AFP.
"These
are evil acts carried out by cowardly people," shouted
15-year-old Jordanian student Hossam as he joined thousands taking to
the streets of Amman Thursday and Friday to vent their anger over
deadly hotel bombings that brutally shattered the calm of one of the
Middle East's safest cities.
"If
they are brave let them come forth and confront us face-to-face,"
said Hossam, like most protestors waving the Jordanian flag.
All
around him demonstrators shouted: "Peace, peace. Zarqawi is an
imbecile".
As
night fell Thursday, hundreds of Jordanians lit candles and laid
flowers outside the Radisson SAS and Hyatt hotels. Candles were also
placed around the city's main roundabouts and monuments.
"We
are with you Abu Hussein!" some shouted in referring to King
Abdullah II.
Unity
Mosques
across Jordan held special mourning prayers Friday for the victims of
the terrorist attacks.
And
in a spirited display of unity, several thousand demonstrators marched
through Amman Friday.
"This
has united the Jordanian people -- do you see all these Jordanian
flags everywhere?" said 20-year-old university student Abdullah
Abu Rumman.
"We
forget everything about our origins -- Palestinians, Jordanians,
Arabs. We're all together now."
Worshippers
poured out of mosques after weekly Muslim prayers to join a
demonstration called by trade and professional unions and opposition
groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood.
Marchers
chanted slogans and waved banners and Jordanian flags.
Ibrahim
Samra, a Jordanian-American high school student, said he turned out
for the march "because it's disgusting to see people killed at a
wedding."
Ibrahim's
father, Sabry, a political science professor at the University of
Jordan, told AFP Wednesday's attacks made Jordanians realize that
"we are one people and we reject using violence against innocent
people."
"At
the moment, everybody is together, even though there might be
differences on foreign policy or democratic reforms."
Prominent
Syrian film director Mustafa Akkad, who also holds US nationality,
died of injuries sustained in one of the attacks, a family friend told
AFP. He was the 57th
casualty.
Akkad,
68, was wounded in the neck in an attack that also killed his
33-year-old daughter Rima.
He
is best known for his 1977 epic "The Message: The Story of
Islam", starring Anthony Quinn and Irene Papas.
Born
in Aleppo in 1935, Akkad also directed the 1981 film "Lion of the
Desert", in which famous star Anthony Quinn starred as Libyan
anti-colonial fighter Omar Mukhtar.
