On 9 November 2005, three suicide bombings hit the Radisson SAS, Grand Hyatt and Days Inn hotels in the Jordanian capital, Amman, killing dozens and injuring more than a hundred, one of the deadliest attacks in the kingdom’s history.
Twenty-one years on, the anniversary comes as Jordan deals with the aftermath of two new attacks: the first targeted a church in Karak governorate in the south on 23 October 2026, killing nine people and injuring dozens; the second came on 5 November, when a public security officer, Cpl. Jawad Ali Khalaf Al-Salaita, was killed in a knife attack in Amman.
What stands out, according to court papers, is that both suspects had previously been convicted in terrorism cases before being released. This prompted the government to move to toughen penalties in counter-terrorism laws and reopened debate on rehabilitation programmes and the monitoring of released prisoners.
Jordan was no stranger to militant activity before 2005: in October 2002 US diplomat Laurence Foley was assassinated in Amman in an operation the authorities linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and in August 2005 rockets were fired from Aqaba.
Several factors help explain why the kingdom remains a target, from its location amid protracted regional crises to its international relations and the phenomenon of prisoners returning to extremism after serving their sentences, making a combined security, legislative and root-causes approach a necessity rather than an option.
Source: BBC Arabic
