Jordan says it has thwarted planned terrorist attacks

AMMAN, Dec 16 (AFP) - Jordan said Thursday its arrest of 13 suspects earlier this month thought to be linked to alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden had thwarted plans to carry out a series of attacks on Jordanian territory.

"We are confident of having dismantled the entire network trained in Afghanistan and removed any risk of imminent terrorist actions in our territory," a senior Jordanian official, who asked not to be identified, told AFP.

"We have completely thwarted the group's plan, which was at its initial stage, and envisaged terrorist actions against different Jordanian and non-Jordanian targets in the kingdom," he added, without going into details.

The United States has said the arrests of Bin Laden supporters in Jordan were linked to threats against US targets in the new year, and both the British and US embassies in Amman Thursday warned their citizens to take care.

"The ring that was smashed was funded in particular by Omar Abu Omar, also known as Abu Kutada, who is a right-hand man of Osama Bin Laden," the Jordanian official said.

"He is a Jordanian, who entered Britain on a false passport and has since obtained political asylum there," he said.

"He was sentenced in Jordan in his absence in 1998 for involvement in a series of explosions in this country, including one in the car park of a hotel" on April 30, 1998, the official added.

The official also named the leader of the Afghan-trained group as Khader Abu Ghoshar, who had also been jailed in Jordan in 1993 for involvement in causing explosions, before being released under a royal amnesty.

"Abu Ghoshar and his 12 associates, most of whom had returned to Jordan some time ago, were under surveillance by the Jordanian security services for several months," he said.

"They waited until all the members of the group, who were going back and forth to Afghanistan, were in Jordan before rounding them up," he said, giving the date of the arrests as December 5.

"The Iraqi and the Algerian who were among those arrested, as well as some of the Jordanians, entered Jordan on false passports."

The Jordanian official, commenting on the background of the alleged terrorists, said Abu Ghoshar had received training in Afghanistan on the manufacture and handling of bombs. He set up a group called Jaish Mohammed (the army of Mohammed), comprising veterans of the Afghan conflict, which was responsible for several explosions in Jordan.

Contacts were formed with another group, Al-Islah wal-Tahadi (reform and challenge), headed by Omar, before both groups were broken up, the official said.

Jordan asked Pakistan in early December to extradite another man, Khalil al-Deek (ed: CORR) believed to be linked to Bin Laden and the network dismantled in Amman, he added.

The State Department said Wednesday that the United States was speaking to the Pakistani government about the reported arrest in Peshawar of a suspect believed to be affiliated with bin Laden.

However, the Jordanian official said "Jordan's extradition request to Pakistan preceded Washington's request."