It is really difficult to write about such a thing, finding the right words is so hard, but I will be trying to express some of what I have inside.
It was November 9th 2005, the Black Wednesday, when the shocking crime occurred rocking the whole world exploding one of the glamorous nights of the safest capitals in world, Amman, when bunch of so called "humans" exploded themselves inside 3 Hotels: Radisson SAS, Grand Hyatt, and Days Inn, killing innocent people, part of them was celebrating the event of the creation of a new Jordanian Family at their wedding party!
Terrorists performed this crime may have killed some of us, forced us to get sadly shocked, frightened some people for moments, but after couple of days Jordanians got healed and filled with more energy to face the whole world as they will never be able to kill us inside, our hearts, our unity, nor our deep love for Jordan! it was a crime that filled us all with even more love, sacrifice, enthusiasm, power and energy, all united for our beloved country Jordan!
Jordan is a great and safe country that will never go down, we are always up, up on the top! facing all challenges as we are NOT Forced to love our country, but we love it Freely deep inside and we are proudly Jordanians enough to beat all problems and issues we face!
History of Amman Jordan Bombings:
[wikipedia]: The 2005 Amman bombings were a series of coordinated bomb attacks on three hotels in Amman, Jordan, on November 9, 2005. Al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attacks, which killed 60 people and injured 115 others. The explosions—at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, the Radisson SAS Hotel, and the Days Inn—started at around 20:50 local time (18:50 UTC) at the Grand Hyatt. The three hotels are often frequented by foreign diplomats. The bomb at the Radisson SAS exploded in the Philadelphia Ballroom, where a wedding hosting hundreds of guests was taking place.
Radisson SAS
At the Radisson SAS Hotel, two suicide bombers (a husband and wife team—Ali Hussein Ali al-Shamari and Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi)—entered the Philadelphia Ballroom, where Ashraf Akhras and his bride, Nadia Al-Alami, were celebrating their wedding with around 900 Jordanian and Palestinian guests. Sajida al-Rishawi was unable to detonate her belt. Her husband Ali al-Shamari, apparently admonished her and told her to get out of the room. As she was leaving, the lights went out in the ballroom, Ali jumped onto a dining-room table and detonated himself. Amongst the 38[3] people killed in the explosion were the fathers of the bride and groom. In addition, the explosion destroyed the ballroom, blew out the large windows bordering the street, and knocked down ceiling panels. The hotel lobby was also affected: ceiling panels and light fixtures collapsed, furniture was destroyed, and the hotel's glass doors were shattered. Cleanup and rebuilding commenced shortly afterwards.
Grand Hyatt
The second blast happened about 500 yards (500 m) from the Radisson SAS. It destroyed the hotel's entrance and brought down pillars and ceiling tiles, along with badly damaging the reception and bar areas. After the bomber ordered orange juice in the hotel's coffee shop, he went to another room (possibly to get his explosive belt) and then came back and detonated. Seven hotel employees were killed in this blast, as were Syrian-American movie producer Moustapha Akkad and his daughter, Rima.[4] Akkad, who is best known for producing the Halloween series of slasher films, was also the producer of Mohammad, Messenger of God. At the time of his death, he was in the early stages of producing a film about Saladin, the Kurdish Muslim leader who expelled the Crusaders from Palestine. Hyatt began cleanup shortly after the attacks and reopened their hotel on November 19.
Days InnAt the Days Inn the bomber entered the restaurant on the hotel's ground floor. He tried to detonate his explosive belt but had trouble; a waiter noticed this and called security. The bomber ran outside of the hotel and successfully detonated himself, killing three members of a Chinese military delegation. Property damage at the Days Inn is expected to amount to around $200,000, according to Khaled Abu Ghoush, general manager of the property. He said lost revenue due to the disrupted business is expected to total around $50,000 and be covered by insurance.
Casualties
According to one Jordanian official, Maj. Bashir al-Da'aja, early in the investigation, local authorities confirmed a series of coordinated suicide attacks as the cause of the blasts. Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister Marwan al-Muasher initially announced that at least 67 people have died and 300 people have been injured. However, the Jordanian government subsequently revised the number of casualties down to at least 59 dead and 115 injured. The adjustment in figures was not explained.
Among the dead were thirty-six Jordanians, mostly Jordanian Christians. The rest were six Iraqis, five Palestinians, four Americans, two Arab-Israelis,[6] two Bahrainis, three Chinese delegates of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), one Saudi, and one Indonesian citizen. The Palestinian fatalities included Major-General Bashir Nafeh, the head of military intelligence in the West Bank, Colonel Abed Allun, a high-ranking Preventive Security forces official, Jihad Fatouh, the commercial attache at the Palestinian Embassy in Cairo, and Mosab Khorma, a senior Palestinian-American banker and former Paltel CEO. Both of the Israeli fatalities were Arabs. One was Husam Fathi Mahajna, a businessman from Umm al-Fahm, the other was an unidentified resident of East Jerusalem. Syrian-American film producer Moustapha Akkad, who was in the Grand Hyatt lobby, was severely wounded and died in hospital on November 11. His 34-year-old daughter Rima was also killed in the blast.
There were rumors that several Israeli citizens were evacuated prior to the blast, although two Arab-Israelis were fatally injured in the explosions. Such rumors are not uncommon in such situations, as Israeli conspiracy theories are very prevalent in Arab countries.
Suspects
Jordanian police initially stated that there were at least four attackers (the fourth, a female, was later captured), including a couple, who spoke Iraqi-accented Arabic. A number of Iraqis were among the more than 100 suspects who were arrested in the following days. Police claimed to have found maps that were used in planning the attack. On November 12, Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Muasher [9] said that the attacks were carried out by Jordanian-born Zarqawi's group. According to Jordanian officials, the attackers were Iraqi and had entered the country three days before the attacks, and there were only three attackers.
On November 13, King Abdullah announced the arrest of a woman believed to be a fourth would-be suicide bomber, whose explosive belt failed to detonate. The three dead suicide bombers have been identified , and their names were announced by Deputy Prime Minister Muasher. They were Ali Hussein Ali al-Shamari (SAS Radisson), Rawad Jassem Mohammed Abed (Grand Hyatt), and Safaa Mohammed Ali (Days Inn). The woman in custody has been identified as Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi. She was married to al-Shamari and intended to blow herself up at the Radisson. Muasher also said that she was the sister of a close aide of al-Zarqawi.
Source of the attacks
An Internet statement released the day after, purportedly from Al-Qaeda in Iraq, claimed that they had carried out the attacks. The statement also revealed the names of the bombers: Abu Khabib, Abu Muaz, Abu Omaira and Om Omaira, all Iraqis. Members of the Jordanian government had already begun blaming the attacks on the Islamic terrorist group, which counts the Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, among its leaders. "The attacks carry the trademark of al Qaeda", one police official said. Two U.S. intelligence officials agreed, describing the style of the attacks as bearing the trademark of al-Zarqawi, who has, in the past, discussed the possibility of launching attacks outside of Iraq. Of late, there have been concerns that terrorist attacks may occur in Jordan, due in part to its close proximity to Iraq, but also due to its government's cooperation in the United States' War on Terrorism.
Notably, the Radisson hotel was previously an al Qaeda target during the 2000 millennium attack plots. Jordanian police foiled the original attempt after arresting Khadr Abu Hoshar, a Palestinian militant, along with 15 others on December 12, 1999. All three of the hotels are frequented by American, Israeli, and European military contractors, journalists, business people, and diplomats, and the city itself has long been described as a "gate way" for westerners into Baghdad and Iraq at large, leading many to entertain the possibility of a connection between the Amman bombings and the war in Iraq.
In American shorthand date notation, the month number is followed by the day number, i.e. 9/11 corresponds to September 11. However, elsewhere in the world, the month number follows the day number, thus, November 9 would be notated in most nations, including Jordan, as 9/11. It has been speculated that this may constitute a parallel between the two dates (and thus to the September 11, 2001 attacks).
