Kingdom marks 14th anniversary of Amman hotel bombings

AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah on Saturday took to Twitter to commemorate the Amman bombings as the country marked the 14th anniversary of the attacks.

His Majesty’s tweet in Arabic read: “May God have mercy on Jordan’s blessed martyrs." 

A group of extremists perpetrated the terrorist attacks, targetting three locations in Amman on November 9, 2005, killing 60 people and injuring 200.

Using explosive belts, the terrorists bombed three hotels: The hotel formerly known as the Radisson SAS Hotel at 9:30 pm followed by two other suicide bombings a few minutes later at the Grand Hyatt Hotel and Days Inn.

Safa Mohammad Ali, Rawad Jassem and Ali Hussein Rishawi were identified as the bombers.

A fourth, Sajida Rishawi, was planning to detonate her belt alongside her husband Ali Hussein at the Radisson SAS, but her explosive belt failed to go off.

She was tried and sentenced to death for possessing explosives with illicit intent and plotting subversive acts that led to the deaths of individuals. Rishawi was executed in 2015.

Six others, who were tried in absentia on the same charges, were also sentenced to death.

They include Mazen Mohammad Shehadeh, a Jordanian, and Iraqi nationals Othman Ismail Dalimi, Hiam Hassan and her brother Walid, Nihad Rishawi and Karim Jassim Fahdawi.