BRIDE'S MOTHER SUCCUMBS TO HER WOUNDS

Nov 17, 7:24 AM (ET)

By SHAFIKA MATTAR

(AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - The mother of the bride whose wedding was devastated in the Amman suicide bombings died of her wounds Thursday.

Hala al-Faroukah died because of severe injuries to her spinal cord, which stopped her respiratory system from functioning, said a doctor at Amman Surgical Hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity. She was in her late fifties.

Her death brings the number of people killed by the suicide bombers in the Nov. 9 attacks at three Amman hotels to 59, including the three bombers. The al-Qaida in Iraq terror group, which is led by the Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Al-Faroukah was wounded in the attack at the Radisson SAS hotel where an Iraqi, identified as Ali Hussein Ali al-Shamari, walked into the ballroom during a wedding party and detonated a belt of explosives. The blast killed al-Faroukah's husband, Khaled al-Alami, immediately, and caused the greatest number of casualties of the three hotel bombings.

The bride and groom, Ashraf and Nadia Akhras, survived the explosion without injury. But 17 relatives of Ashraf were killed, including his father, and Nadia lost 11 family members, including her parents.
Ashraf Akhras said Thursday that al-Faroukah had been in a coma since she was admitted to the hospital shortly after the attack.

She died at dawn Thursday, he told The Associated Press. He and his wife had visited her in hospital on Wednesday night.

The Radisson hotel bomber's wife, Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi, was arrested on Sunday. She confessed on television that she tried to detonate her own explosives belt, but it failed and she fled the scene.