Nov 18, 4:34 PM (ET)
By JAMAL HALABY
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - An audiotape in the name of al-Qaida in Iraq threatened on Friday to chop off King Abdullah II's head and bomb more hotels and tourist sites. The speaker on the tape, identified as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, also said the group's suicide bombers did not intend to bomb a Jordanian wedding party at an Amman hotel last week, killing about 30 people.
"Your star is fading. You will not escape your fate, you descendant of traitors. We will be able to reach your head and chop it off," al-Zarqawi said, referring to the king.
Al-Zarqawi told Jordanians to stay away from bases used by U.S. forces in Jordan, hotels and tourist sites in Amman, the Dead Sea and the southern resort of Aqaba and embassies of governments participating in the war in Iraq, saying they would be targeted.
He underlined that al-Qaida in Iraq is not targeting fellow Muslims.
"People of Islam in Jordan, we want to assure you that we are extremely careful over your lives ... you are more beloved to us than ourselves," he said.
The authenticity of the audiotape, posted on an Islamic militant Web forum, could not be confirmed independently, but the voice resembled that of al-Zarqawi on previous tapes.
The tape was posted following widespread outrage over the Nov. 9 bombings against three Amman hotels that killed 59 people, 30 of them in a Jordanian-Palestinian wedding party held in a ballroom. Even contributors to militant Web forums - who lionize al-Zarqawi and praise his attacks - criticized the bombings, saying he should avoid civilians.
Al-Zarqawi insisted that the striking of the wedding party at the Radisson SAS hotel was a "lie" and a "forgery" by Jordanian security officials.
The Radisson bomber struck a hall where Israeli intelligence officials were meeting at the time, al-Zarqawi claimed. But part of the roof fell in on the wedding hall, either from the blast or even - he said - from a separate bomb placed in the roof, though not by al-Qaida.
"Our martyred brother's target was halls being used at the time by intelligence officers from some of the infidel crusader nations and their lackeys," he said. "Our brothers knew their targets with great precision."
"God knows we chose these hotels only after more than two months of close observation (that proved) that these hotels had become headquarters for the Israeli and American intelligence," he said.
"People of Jordan, we did not undertake to blow up any wedding parties," he said. "For those Muslims who were killed, we ask God to show them mercy, for they were not targets. We did not and will not think for one moment to target them."
Al-Zarqawi accused the Jordanian government of hiding casualties among Israeli and American agents.
"I defy the renegade government to show us the losses among the Jews," he said.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev called al-Zarqawi's claims "ludicrous."
"This man has the blood of many innocents on his hands, most of them Muslims," Regev said. "To claim that those innocent victims in Jordan were working for Israel is simply ludicrous and deserves ridicule."
The Radisson attack involved two bombers - an Iraqi husband and wife. Witnesses told Jordanian security officials that the couple talked their way into the wedding, telling hotel employees they wanted to watch, then went to different sides of the hall. When the woman's explosives belt failed to go off, her husband told her to leave, then he jumped on a table in the ballroom and set off his blast, Jordanian officials have said.
Radisson spokesman Bassam al-Bana denied al-Zarqawi's claims about an intelligence meeting, telling The Associated Press, "There were no meetings of Israelis there."
The only Israeli killed in the blasts was an Israeli Arab attending the wedding. Four Americans were killed in the triple bombings - including Syrian-born moviemaker Mustafa Akkad and his daughter.
In the tape, the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi listed the reasons his group - which has led a fearsome campaign of suicide bombings and other attacks against U.S. forces and Shiites in Iraq for two years - is now targeting Jordan.
He said Jordan has served as a protector for Israel and has allowed Israeli companies to take over its economy; allows the presence of "secret American prisons" on its territory where "dozens of mujahideen" are being held; and has become a "swamp of obscenity" allowing alcohol and prostitution at tourist sites.
Earlier Friday, thousands of flag-waving Jordanians thronged downtown Amman in the "March of the Nation," a noisy, emphatic demonstration against the hotel attacks.
"Al-Zarqawi, you coward, what brought you here?" the angry crowd shouted.
"Cease, cease, al-Zarqawi, you are a villain!" the throng chanted. "Cease, Cease, you terrorist, you are a coward!"
Jordanian television reported that 100,000 people marched; however, that estimate could not be independently verified. The size of the crowd appeared to be much larger than protests in the days right after the bombings.
"I came specifically to say to those terrorists and al-Zarqawi that we are all united against them. We do not want them on our land," said Ghazi al-Hajjaj, 43, who traveled from Tafila, 115 miles south of Amman, to attend the rally.
Palestinians from Jordan's 13 refugee camps also participated.
The crowd of mostly men, many wearing Jordan's distinct red-checkered keffiyeh around their necks, marched from the downtown Al-Husseini mosque following Friday prayers. Soldiers stood watch along the streets as the marchers passed.
Some men brought their families with them. Aya Abu-Ghosh, 9, came with her father and siblings.
"I came here to say to terror: Get out of our home. We don't want you. You scare us," she said.
Many demonstrators lifted photos of the king and carried banners denouncing the attacks and al-Zarqawi.
"Al-Zarqawi, you are the enemy of God," one read.
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Associated Press reporters Lee Keath and Salah Nasrawi in Cairo, Egypt, and Shafika Mattar in Amman contributed to this report.
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