Terrorism Notebook
Jordan sentences eight to death for killing U.S. envoy

	Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
	E-mail this article Print this article Search archive

Al-Zarqawi and five of the other men sentenced remain at large. They were sentenced for the murder of Laurence Foley, 60, an executive officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development, who was shot eight times at close range on Oct. 28, 2002, outside his home in the Jordanian capital. The attack shook usually quiet Jordan, which is wedged between war zones in Israel and Iraq.

The two sentenced to die who are in custody are Salem bin Suweid, a Libyan accused of shooting Foley, and Yasser Freihat, the Jordanian driver of the getaway car. All the defendants present for the 10-month trial denied wrongdoing.

U.S. officials are offering a $10 million reward for the capture of the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi, who is thought to have created a network of foreign militants in neighboring Iraq. Jordanian prosecutors accused al-Zarqawi of providing Suweid with weapons and paying him $62,000 to kill Foley.

About the time the sentence was announced yesterday, a man claiming to be al-Zarqawi released a tape posted on an Islamist Web site calling on Sunni Muslims to step up their attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and on the country's majority Shiite Muslims, whom he accused of being collaborators. "Sharpen your swords and burn the ground under the invaders' feet," Reuters quoted the man as saying.

His location is unknown. Also known as Ahmed al-Khalayleh, al-Zarqawi apparently has moved throughout the region since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

FBI wants Philippine suspect tried in U.S.

MANILA, Philippines — The United States has asked the Philippines to extradite one of six suspected Muslim militants arrested last week on suspicion of planning bombings, believing he beheaded a U.S. tourist in 2001, Philippine officials said yesterday.

They said the FBI had requested that Alhamser Limbong, alias Kosovo, be tried in a U.S. court for the abduction of three U.S. nationals from a beach resort in May 2001 and the beheading of one.

Philippine security forces arrested Limbong in Manila last week, saying they had foiled a plan by him and five other suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf militant group to launch terror attacks in the capital.

Also...

Pakistani police arrested nine suspected Islamic militants, all members of the outlawed militant group Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen al-Almi, including a man who reportedly sent suicide bombers to carry out a deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Karachi nearly two years ago, authorities said yesterday. ... British and U.S. intelligence agencies and police foiled a plot to create a chemical vapor bomb in Britain, the BBC reported yesterday.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company