veiled4allah: on the bombings in Jordan

Syria also condemned the attacks and reminded Jordan of its solidarity. "We have painfully learned the news that attacks aimed at hotels lead to the deaths of innocent people," a Syrian foreign affairs official was quoted as saying by the official SANA news agency.

"Syria vigorously condemns these attacks and expresses its total solidarity with Jordan."

No group immediately came forward to claim responsibility for the bombings.

Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood strongly condemned the terrorist attacks that it said went against Islam.

"These are criminal and terrorist acts which no Muslim can accept and which go against our religion," the head of the Brotherhood, Abdel Majid Zuneibat said after the attacks.

"The enemies of the nation will only profit from this crime," Zuneibat said in a statement carried on state-run Petra news agency.

Palestinian flags were lowered to half mast on official buildings on Thursday as leader Mahmud Abbas denounced the blasts as a "crime against humanity and Arab security".

Hundreds of Jordanians have taken part in street protests denouncing terrorism in the wake of Wednesday's triple hotel bombings in the capital Amman. Chants such as "Burn in hell, Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi" were heard from the demonstrators, referring to claims the leader of the al-Qaida in [ed. note: appears to be referring to al-Qaida in Iraq] group to have carried out the attacks...

..."Death to al-Zarqawi, the villain and the traitor," shouted the angry crowd comprising Jordanians of all backgrounds, including women and children.

Drivers of vehicles decorated with the colourful Jordanian flags and posters of Jordan's King Abdullah II honked their horns...

...Other rallies were held across the kingdom, including one in the Red Sea port of Aqaba, where attackers using Katyusha rockets narrowly missed a US ship and killed a Jordanian soldier in August.

Others were in al-Zarqawi's hometown of Zarqa and the southern city of Maan which is known to be a hub of Muslim fundamentalists.

The Amman protest was organised by Jordan's 14 professional and trade unions, made up of both hardline Islamic groups and leftist political organisations, traditionally a vocal critic of King Abdullah's moderate and pro-western policies.

"We're here to demonstrate our support of our government and express our love to our country and condemn in the strongest terms the heinous crime committed against Jordan by a group of terrorists," said Abdul-Fatah Kilani, president of the veterinary union.

Businessman Mohammed Daoud Mheirat said: "This rotten group and those killers have nothing to do with our religion."

AT least 200,000 people marched though the centre of the Jordanian capital Amman overnight in a mass show of anger at the triple suicide bombings this month that left 59 dead, police and organisers said. Many protestors shouted slogans against Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant whose group claimed the blast, chanting, "Zarqawi, from Amman, we say to you: you are a coward."

Brandishing banners with the names of their tribes and which pledged their loyalty to King Abdullah II, the demonstrators appeared to have come from every corner of the country.

It was by far the largest show of public fury against extremism since the November 9 blasts in Amman shattered the relative calm of the kingdom.