Major-General Bashir Nafeh, the head of military intelligence in the West Bank, and Colonel Abed Allun, a Preventive Security Forces official, were killed in the attack at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Ambassador Attala Kheri told The AP.
Read more from Aljazeera.
Aljazeera is also reporting the following:
The casualty figures show the dead included at least 15 Jordanians, five Iraqi nationals, three Chinese, a Saudi, a Syrian, a Palestinian and an Indonesian, while the bodies of 30 people had yet to be identified. Israel radio reported that an Israeli businessman was among the dead.
The link I posted earlier leads to the same article by Yoav Stern, but it has been rewritten and updated. Stern now says "there is no truth" to reports Israelis staying at the Radisson SAS were evacuated hours before the explosions.
Stern cites "contrary to earlier reports" and says the Israelis were evacuated by Jordanian security forces after the blasts, not several hours before, as he had initially reported. The Haaretz article goes on to say one Israeli was killed in the blasts but it is unclear in which hotel.
Meanwhile, the Al Qaida in Iraq group purportedly released the following statement:
"A group of our best lions launched a new attack on some dens ... After casing the targets, some hotels were chosen which the Jordanian despot turned into a backyard for the enemies of the faith, the Jews and crusaders,"the statement on a website usually used by the group, said on Thursday. Doesn't make sense since it was mostly Arabs and Muslims who died.
But again, that's typical of this barbaric group. According to Aljazeera, two senior Palestinian officials were killed in the blasts.
So, Al Qaida says it is targeting Israelis and Jews and crusaders but managed to kill four Palestinian officials, two of whom are senior security officials.
Does this not sound strange? Or mere coincidence? This is getting weirder by the minute.
