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Al Qaeda chief vows to behead Jordan king Web site audio claims wedding party wasn't a target
Amman, Jordan -- The head of al Qaeda in Iraq has threatened to chop off the head of King Abdullah II and to attack tourist sites throughout Jordan, according to an audio recording posted Friday on a Web site. He also insisted that he had never intended to attack a Muslim wedding in the triple suicide blasts that killed more than 60 people here last week.
The speaker on the recording, reportedly Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a top leader of the Iraqi insurgency, appeared determined to answer critics of the attack who have been outraged that he sent suicide bombers into the wedding reception.
"We want to assure you," he said, "that you are more beloved to us than ourselves."
The authenticity of the communication could not be independently verified. But the recording was clearly an effort to regain the degree of support that Jordan-born al-Zarqawi and his movement had enjoyed before sending suicide bombers into three hotels here last week.
The recording was posted on the same day that thousands of people crowded into downtown Amman, waving banners that called for Jordanian unity while breaking into anti-Zarqawi chants. "Cease, cease, al-Zarqawi, you are a villain!" the crowd shouted. "Cease, cease, you terrorist, you are a coward!"
Al-Zarqawi has won over a small but highly committed group of followers in Jordan.
One supporter, who identified himself only as Abu Khalid because he was afraid of being arrested, said in an interview that he believed that the suicide bombers had not meant to involve the wedding but instead blew up the second floor of the Radisson SAS Hotel -- as the recording claimed -- and that wedding participants had been injured when the blast caused the ceiling to fall.
There is no evidence to support the claim on the recording, and the damage in the ballroom itself was evidence that the blast occurred in the middle of the wedding celebration. The groom, Ashraf Daas, confirmed as much in an interview on Friday night.
"The explosion was inside the hall," he said. "The flash and the sound were inside the hall. Let him say what he wants to say, and we saw what we saw. It was inside the hall."
