Jordanian man dies in rocket attack on Eilat area
LAST UPDATED: 08/02/2010 08:31
Projectiles suspected to have been fired from Sinai; 2 fall in Red Sea, 2 in Jordan, 1 near Eilat; IDF in contact with Jordanian, Egyptian armies; source of attack unclear.
Eilat, with Jordanian Aqaba in the background. Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski
Five rockets landed in the area around Eilat Monday morning, killing one Jordanian and injuring three more, in front of the Intercontinental Hotel.
two of the rockets exploded in Jordan, a third north of Eilat's hotel area, and two more in the Red Sea. The projectiles were thought to be Grad-type Katyushas launched from the Sinai Peninsula.
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Jordan: We
were target of rocket attack
'Katyusha
probably fired from Sinai'
According to an
IDF statement,
soldiers were scouring the area to determine the source of the attacks,
which was unclear. The IDF was in contact with the Jordanian and
Egyptian armies regarding the incident.
A
possible group behind the
rockets could have been Hamas,
which is known to use Sinai to smuggle
weaponry and operatives in and out of the Gaza Strip. There are also known to be Global Jihad elements in the
Sinai who have
the capability to fire rockets toward Eilat.
Rocket attacks in
Eilat are rare but not
unheard of, with two attacks having occurred in the last five years.
In April, two
rockets fired landed in Eilat and the adjacent
Jordanian port of Aqaba.
In 2005 a rocket fired from Jordan landed next to the Eilat airport and
two others missed a US Navy vessel docked at the nearby Jordanian port
of Aqaba. No one was reported hurt. A group linked with al- Qaida
claimed
responsibility for the attack.
In January 2007, a deadly attack
by a Palestinian suicide bomber in Eilat killed three men working at a
bakery. Both Islamic Jihad and al-Aqsa Martyrs claimed responsibility
for the attack.