Rockets Miss U.S. Warship in Jordan
Attackers firing Katyusha rockets narrowly missed a U.S. amphibious assault ship docked at this Red Sea resort Friday, but killed a Jordanian soldier.
Two more rockets were shot toward nearby Israel without causing serious damage.
Jordanian security forces hunted for at least six Egyptian, Syrian and Iraqi suspects. An Al Qaeda-linked group said it staged the attack here.
The string of attacks over 10 months has raised fears that Islamic extremists are opening a new arena of combat in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and the Gulf of Aqaba, bordered by Israel, Egypt and Jordan.
In addition to striking U.S. targets, some extremist Muslims would like to topple the governments of Jordan and Egypt, which are longtime allies of Washington and have peace treaties with Israel.
The Abdullah Azzam Brigades, a militant group claiming to be behind bombings that killed at least 64 people at Sharm el Sheik in July and 34 people at two other Egyptian resorts last October, posted a statement on the Internet saying it fired the rockets Friday.
“A group of our holy warriors ... targeted a gathering of American military ships docking in Aqaba port,” the statement said.
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