Al Qaeda suicide bombers murder 100

THE death toll from suicide bombers directed by terror mastermind Abu Musab al- Zarqawi rose to more than 100 in Jordan and Iraq yesterday.

For the first time, the Jordanian- born head of Al Qaeda in Iraq struck in his homeland as three co- ordinated bombings ripped through hotels used by Westerners in the heart of the Jordanian capital Amman killing 57 people.

Two of the bombs on Wednesday turned packed wedding parties into scenes of carnage. Hours later, another suicide bomber walked into a busy Baghdad restaurant at breakfast time and blew himself up, killing 35 people and leaving 25 wounded. A further ten civilians were killed when a car bomb exploded at an army recruitment station in Tikrit, north of Baghdad.

As Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the Jordan attacks, the head of German foreign intelligence warned Islamist militants in Europe as well as the Middle East are increasingly identifying with Zarqawi.

‘We see the Zarqawi network is becoming increasingly active – we also see a growing threat for Europe,’ said August Hanning, head of the BND intelligence service. It had long been feared that bombers would strike in Jordan, which borders Iraq and has been a strong supporter of the United States.

Two bombs turned crowded wedding parties into scenes of blood and panic at the Grand Hyatt and the nearby Radisson SAS in central Amman. A third blast targeted a Days Inn hotel. Among the dead were two fathers who just moments before one blast had posed proudly with their newly married children.