Jordan Nabs Prime Suspect in Navy Ship Attack

Reported here:

A Syrian linked to an Iraqi-based terrorist group has been arrested as the prime suspect in the rocket attack that barely missed U.S. warships docked in the port of Aqaba (search), the Jordanian government said Monday.

The government statement, read on state television, said the suspect, Mohammed Hassan Abdullah al-Sihly (search), plotted and carried out the attack along with two of his sons and an Iraqi.

The statement said the plotters were part of an Iraq-based terrorist group, which was not named.

Al-Sihly, who lives in Amman, had been surveying sites for the Katyusha rocket attack in Aqaba since Aug. 6, the statement said. He was joined by his two sons — Abdullah and Abdul-Rahman — and Mohammed Hamid Hussein, the Iraqi, in "carrying out the heinous crime."

Hussein, also known as Abu Mukhtar, was the leader of the Iraq-based group, the announcement said.