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Reuters Rockets narrowly miss US ships in Jordan By Suleiman al-Khalidi 2 hours, 59 minutes ago AMMAN (Reuters) - Rockets were fired at two US warships in Jordan's Red Sea Aqaba port on Friday, but missed their targets and killed a Jordani an soldier on land.
Click Here The three Katyusha missiles instead landed on a warehouse, a hospital and the neighboring Israeli port of Eilat. A Jordanian security source said authorities were searching for three men after the attack, which was launched from an industrial warehouse area. "We are searching for a Syrian and two Iraqis who are in Aqaba and used K uwaiti (car) number plates," the source said. Another source said the wa rehouse from which the rockets were launched had been leased a few days ago by three Iraqis and an Egyptian. A group claiming links to al Qaeda, the Abdullah al-Azzam Brigades of the al Qaeda Organization in the Levant and Egypt, said in a statement it h ad carried out the attack.
Iraq used by the US military and for moving commodities, was operating norma lly. The incident was the most serious attack on US targets in close ally Jo rdan since the killing of US diplomat Lawrence Foley in Amman in 2002. Immediately after the attack, the two US amphibious assault ships, whic h had been on a joint training exercise with the Jordanian navy, weighed anchor and headed for the safety of open water. Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said "one or two" Katyusha rockets h ad fallen in the airport and hotel area of Eilat, which is about 9 km (5 miles) across the Red Sea from Aqaba, but no one was hurt. The US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain said one missile narrowly missed the USS Ashland, an amphibious warfare ship that is designed to transport marine s and to launch assault landing craft and helicopters. "I can confirm that a rocket flew over the bow of USS Ashland and the roc ket impacted in the roof of a warehouse. No sailors or marines were inju red," Commander Jeff Breslau of the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain told Reu ters. "It's pretty safe to conclude that they were probably trying to hit one o r both of the ships," he said. A Jordanian military source said Private Ahmad Alnajdawi, who had been st anding guard at a warehouse, was killed. "Initial investigations show that the main target was the two American ve ssels ... Eilat does not appear to have been targeted nor any civilian J ordanian targets," said one Jordanian security source. COMMAND SHIP Breslau said the Ashland and sister amphibious ship the USS Kearsarge, bo th of which are based in Norfolk, Virginia, had immediately left the por t following the attack. "They'll be out to sea in the area and will decide what to do from there, " he said. The Kearsarge, which carries Harrier jump jets and about 2,000 personnel, serves as the command ship of an Amphibious Ready Group and was involve d in the 1995 rescue of US Air Force pilot Captain Scott O'Grady after he was shot down over Bosnia. A spokesman for the US Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, said the attack w as the first on a US vessel in the region since April 2004, when three US servicemen were killed on the USS Firebolt while it was defending an Iraqi oil platform. Oil climbed back above $64 after the Aqaba attack, although Jordan is not a crude oil exporter. US and Israeli officials said they were cooperating with Jordan in the investigation into the attack. "We are working with the Jordanians and the Israelis to find out who is r esponsible. Both those countries are strong allies in the war on terror and we will continue to cooperate closely," a State Department spokesman said. Egyptian sources said the Suez Canal Authority tightened security along t he banks of the vital waterway after the Aqaba missile attack. A Yemeni court sentenced to death last year two al Qaeda militants for th e 2000 bombing of the US destroyer Cole which killed 17 sailors in the Yemeni port of Aden. It later commuted one of the defendant's term to 1 5 years' jail. Four other militants received jail terms of five to 10 years for the atta ck.
An undated US Navy handout photo shows USS Ashland (top) during a nav al exercise at an undisclosed location. Two US Navy ships sailed out o f Jordan's port of Aqaba on Friday, soon after one of the vessels narrow ly missed being struck by a missile, the US Fifth Fleet and witnesses said. Attackers fired a rocket near the USS Ashland, but the missile mis sed the vessel and hit a nearby warehouse instead, US military officia ls said. The two vessels had been on a joint training exercise with the Jordanian navy.
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