Thursday, November 10 2005 20:05 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Amman: Jordan today (Nov 10, 2005) said it had arrested several suspects over hotel bombings that killed 56 people in the worst attacks in the kingdom's history, claimed by homegrown extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's militants.

The suicide attacks last night on one of the closest US allies in the Middle East targeted three luxury hotels in the Jordanian capital that are favorite haunts of Amman's expatriate community and Western travellers.

The strikes shattered the relative calm of one of the region's most stable countries and marked the first time the kingdom has fallen victim to an attack of this magnitude.

"A number of suspects were arrested and a number of cars were seized in connection with the terrorist attacks," a security source said in a statement carried by state-run Petra news agency.

"The investigation with the suspects is underway," the source added but did not reveal the exact number or identities of those arrested.

The group of Zarqawi, who heads Al-Qaeda's Iraq operations, claimed the attack in an Internet statement, saying, "Our good lions launched a new raid in Amman."

The hotels were turned by the dictator of Jordan as a back garden for the enemies of (our) religion, the Jews and the Crusaders," the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Land of the Two Rivers said, in a reference to King Abdullah II.

Jordan reopened its borders after closing them after the attacks, while increased security was in force at airports and a visible police presence was apparent outside hotels in the capital.

"We cannot confirm it yet for sure but Zarqawi is certainly the prime suspect in the hotel attacks," Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Moasher told sources.

A total of 56 people were killed, including 11 foreigners, and 93 others remain in hospital wounded, according to a revised official toll.

The casualty figures show the dead included 15 Jordanians, five Iraqi nationals, three Chinese, a Saudi, a Palestinian and an Indonesian, while the bodies of 30 people have yet to be identified.

Israel radio reported that an Israeli businessman was among the dead.

In the deadliest blast, a suicide bomber blew himself up just after 9:00 pm local time in a hotel ballroom at the Radisson SAS while a Jordanian wedding reception was in full swing.

Shortly afterwards, a suicide bomber also detonated his charge at the entrance of the Grand Hyatt and a suicide car bomber attacked the three-star Days Inn in the Rabiyeh neighborhood where the Israeli embassy is located.

The bride and groom both lost their fathers and were themselves injured.

"I lost my father and my father-in-law on my wedding night," the groom Ashraf Mohammad.

"The world has to know that this has nothing to do with Islam," he said.

"I did not know what had happened. I was frozen. Then there was a movement of panic. People ran, others screamed," said another witness, who was in the Radisson lobby at the time.