Amman 2005 bombings on hotels

The 2005 Amman bombings were a series of coordinated bomb attacks on three hotels in Amman, Jordan, on 9 November 2005. The attacks 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.^[1][2]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.

The attacks

Radisson SAS

At the Radisson SAS Hotel (now known as the "Landmark 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. Among the 38 people killed in the explosion were the fathers of the bride and groom.^[3] 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 his bomb. 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 Inn

At 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 the hotel and successfully detonated himself, killing three members of a Chinese military delegation. Property damage at the Days Inn was expected to amount to around $200,000.^[5]

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 had died and 300 people had 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 from a Muslim wedding, including the fathers of both the bride and groom. The rest were six Iraqis, fivePalestinians, four Americans, two Arab-Israelis,^[6] two Bahrainis, three Chinese delegates of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), one Saudi, and oneIndonesian 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 (famous for producing the horror film Halloween), who was in the Grand Hyatt lobby, was severely wounded and died in a hospital on November 11. His 34-year-old daughter Rima was also killed in the blast.^[7]

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-accentedArabic. 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.^[8] On November 12, Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Muasher ^[9] Jordan confirms 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,^[10] 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 asSajida 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 Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.^[11]