An Iraqi-Norwegian dual citizen, who attempted to orchestrate the most disastrous bombing plot in Jordan in over a decade, was set to be tried behind closed doors in a Jordanian court on Monday.
“This is the most serious case in a decade in terms of the quantity of explosives discovered and their quality,” an anonymous source said according to Ynet News. The story was originally reported in the Jordanian newspaper Al-Rai.
The suspected terrorist, Khaled Kazem al Rubai, 49, was reportedly carrying 45 kilograms (nearly 100 pounds) of explosives and has been accused of working for the Iranian Bayt al-Maqdis group. The group is reportedly not related to the Egyptian group with the same name that has recently swore allegiance to the Islamic State.
According to i24News, another source told the AFP that the Iraqi terrorist was acting “on behalf of Iran’s Quds Force,” a branch of the Iranian Regime’s Revolutionary military guard.
The last major terrorist attack on Jordanian soil was in 2005 when suicide bombers blasted the Grand Hyatt, the Radisson SAS, and the Days Inn Hotels located in Amman which left dozens of innocent civilians dead.
Al Rubai was reportedly arrested in the Northern town of Jerash, although it is unknown precisely when the arrest was made. Monday’s trial arrives just months after Jordan’s Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh visited Tehran, making him the first high-level official from that country to do so in nearly 10 years in the face of cold tensions between the countries since the dawning of the Iran-Iraq War.
Jordan implemented a new anti-terror law last April, and it is likely Rubai will be tried under the premise of that new legislation. The new law is much broader in its scope and was presented as a way to help the Hashemite Kingdom protect itself from the escalating extremism from neighboring Syria whose President Bashar al-Assad is closely linked with Iran.
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