GAZA CITY — Two senior Palestinian security officials died in the Al Qaida suicide
strikes in Jordan, Palestinian Authority officials said.
PA military intelligence chief Gen. Bashir Nafie was among the 56 casualties. Nafie
was in Amman for talks with Jordanian security officials.
The PA said Interior Ministry director-general Col. Abd Elwan was also
killed in the Al Qaida suicide strikes. Officials said Elwan was also part
of
the PA mission at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Amman.
Nafie runs one of the smaller PA security agencies, with about 1,000
officers, Middle East Newsline reported. Military intelligence has dealt mostly with espionage and
dissidence and many of its officers were active in the Palestinian war
against Israel.
The officials said that in all, four
Palestinians were killed by the blast in Amman on Nov. 9.
The two other Palestinians killed in the attack were former PA
Communications Ministry director-general Musab Khurma and Jihad Fatuh, a
commercial attache in the Palestinian embassy in Cairo. They, too, were said
to have been in Jordan on business.
Officials said Palestinians were the main victims of the Al Qaida
strikes. They said one of the hotels bombed, the Days Inn, contained 130
Palestinian employees and was owned by a family in the West Bank city of
Ramallah.
The attacks also killed an Israeli Arab businessman and a Palestinian
resident of Jerusalem. U.S. diplomats said an American movie producer was
also killed in the attacks and two others were injured.
Jordanian officials said 12 foreigners were among the casualties. A
Bahraini national was identified as one of the victims. Authorities have
arrested several Iraqi nationals as suspects.
Elwan was part of the PA attempt to reform the
security forces. The effort has been opposed by PA security commanders and
officers, who have warned of rampant corruption and anarchy.