U. S. HELD IRAQI WITH SAME NAME AS BOMBER

Nov 14, 9:54 AM (ET)

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - U.S. forces detained and later released an Iraqi with a name that matched one of three suicide bombers who struck Amman hotels, killing 57 others, the U.S. military said Monday.

Jordanian authorities said Safaa Mohammed Ali, 23, was part of the al-Qaida in Iraq squad that bombed the Grand Hyatt, Radisson SAD and Day's Inn hotels on Wednesday.

In Baghdad, the U.S. command said a man by that name was detained by U.S. forces in November 2004 during the American assault on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah. The Americans said they did not know if the man they detained was the same Safaa Mohammed Ali identified by the Jordanians as one of the bombers.

"He was detained locally at the division detention facility" but was released two weeks later because there was no "compelling evidence to continue to hold him" as a "threat to the security of Iraq."

The U.S. detention of thousands of Iraqis has been cited - especially by members of the Sunni Muslim minority that fuels the insurgency - as a major motivation for the continuing campaign of violence.

Jordan said a Safaa Mohammed Ali, who came from the militant hotbed of Anbar Province - which includes Fallujah - drove with three other Iraqis into Jordan on Nov. 5. Four days later they attacked the three hotels.