Iraq's al-Qaida wing claimed responsibility Tuesday for a rocket attack that barely missed U.S. warships docked in the Jordanian port of Aqaba.
The Internet statement was signed Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, the spokesman for Al-Qaida in Iraq. That group is headed by the Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, blamed for a rash of kidnappings, killings and attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq.
Jordan said Monday it had arrested a Syrian, one of four men allegedly involved in the attack. The captured man's two sons and the Iraqi leader of the group were believed to have escaped to Iraq, officials in the Jordanian capital said.
Al-Zarqawi's terror group was the second to claim responsibility for the rocket attack, but the authenticity of the statement, signed by group spokesman Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, could not be verified.
The first claim was issued by the Abdullah Azzam Brigades shortly after the Katyusha rockets were fired from a hilltop warehouse, overlooking Aqaba and its port.
The al-Zarqawi group explained the delay in issuing its claim by saying it waited five days "so that the brothers could finish retreating."
"God has enabled your brothers in the military wing of the al-Qaida in Iraq to plan for the Aqaba invasion a while ago," said the statement, which appeared on a militant Islamic Web site. "After finishing the preparations and deciding on the targets, your brothers launched the rockets."
Jordanian officials were not immediately available for comment on the claim, but investigators have said the rocket assault carried the hallmarks of al-Qaida.
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