Rockets narrowly miss US ships

Katyusha rockets were fired at two US warships in Jordan's Red Sea Aqaba port yesterday, missing their targets, and Jordanian security officials said they believed al Qaeda was involved in the attack.

The rockets hit a warehouse, a hospital and the nearby Israeli port of Eilat. The only casualty was a Jordanian soldier on guard duty at a warehouse, who was killed.

Jordanian security officials said most initial indications pointed to the involvement of al Qaeda, which has been blamed in recent years for several plots to launch attacks on Western targets and government installations.

"We believe al Qaeda was behind this," a security source said.

Jordanian Interior Minister Awni Yarfas said an examination of the rocket launcher appeared to indicate the attackers "were confused and had not properly prepared for the attack, which missed its target which were the vessels."

"The rocket launcher was crude," Mr Yarfas said.

A Jordanian security source earlier said the authorities were searching for three men after the attack, which was launched from an industrial warehouse area.

"We are searching for a Syrian and two Iraqis who are in Aqaba and used Kuwaiti (car) number plates," the source said. Another source said the rockets were launched from a warehouse leased a few days ago by three Iraqis and an Egyptian.

Jordan's close US ties and its 1994 peace with Israel are unpopular with many in the conservative kingdom and there is strong support for Islamist militants in some areas.

Immediately after the attack, the two US ships weighed anchor and headed for open water. US warships regularly dock at Aqaba, a logistics hub and main supply route for US forces in Iraq.

Jordanian security forces cordoned off Aqaba and its industrial zone, but the port was operating normally.

It was the most serious attack on US targets in Jordan since the killing of US diplomat Lawrence Foley in Amman in 2002.

Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said "one or two" Katyusha rockets had fallen in the airport and hotel area of Eilat, about nine kilometres across the Red Sea from Aqaba, but no one was hurt.

The US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain said one missile narrowly missed the USS Ashland, an amphibious warfare ship designed to transport marines and launch assault landing craft and helicopters.

"I can confirm that a rocket flew over the bow of USS Ashland and the rocket impacted in the roof of a warehouse. No sailors or marines were injured,"

Commander Jeff Breslau of the US Fifth Fleet said.

"It's pretty safe to conclude that they were probably trying to hit one or both of the ships," he said.

A Jordanian military source said Private Ahmad al-Najdawi, who had been standing guard at a warehouse, was killed.

Mr Breslau said the Ashland and its sister ship the USS Kearsarge, both based in Norfolk, Virginia, had left the port immediately after the attack. "They'll be out to sea in the area and will decide what to do from there," he said.

The Kearsarge, which carries Harrier jump jets and about 2,000 personnel, is the command ship of an Amphibious Ready Group and was involved in the 1995 rescue of US Air Force pilot Captain Scott O'Grady after he was shot down over Bosnia.