Assaults Jordan

A Jordanian soldier unleashed volleys of automatic rifle fire on Israeli schoolgirls who were on a field trip at the scenic "Island of Peace" border post Thursday, killing seven of the junior high students and wounding six. Witnesses said 40 to 50 eighth-graders had gotten off their bus and were surveying the sun-washed view over the River Jordan when the gunman grabbed a fellow soldier's weapon and began firing at the students' backs from a guard tower.

A trial opened Thursday for 28 men charged with plotting to attack U.S. and Israeli tourists in Jordan over the New Year's holiday. The men, who are allegedly linked to accused terrorist Osama bin Laden, "plotted to destabilize public security," military prosecutor-general Lt. Col. Mahmoud Obeidat told the State Security Court. Reading the indictment, Obeidat said the defendants possessed and manufactured explosives to be used against U.S. and Israeli targets during New Year's celebrations.

A trial opened Thursday for 28 men charged with plotting to attack U.S. and Israeli tourists in Jordan over the New Year's holiday. The men, who are allegedly linked to accused terrorist Osama bin Laden, "plotted to destabilize public security," military prosecutor-general Lt. Col. Mahmoud Obeidat told the State Security Court. Reading the indictment, Obeidat said the defendants possessed and manufactured explosives to be used against U.S. and Israeli targets during New Year's celebrations.

The killer of seven Israeli schoolgirls should have been shot to death by his fellow soldiers as soon as he began firing, King Hussein said Thursday. In unusually harsh words, the king wrote to security forces a week after a Jordanian soldier shot the girls on an island in the Jordan River and said the soldiers' comrades should have tried to "kill him immediately." The gunman, Cpl. Ahmed Daqamseh, 28, has been detained for questioning. He is expected to be tried in a military court.

The slaying of seven Israeli schoolgirls by a Jordanian soldier this week highlighted what has become a sad truth here--that peace in the Middle East never quite lives up to its name. Or even to expectations. Egypt and Israel made peace nearly 20 years ago, and neither side has much good to say about it still.

Silence descended Friday on the rundown family home of Ahmed Moussa Daqamseh. Police turned away the curious. Neighbors clammed up, apparently aware of police orders not to discuss Daqamseh, the Jordanian soldier who shot seven Israeli schoolgirls to death the day before. Regional police gave the reason: "It's very sensitive," one said. "It's a matter between states."

It was long after nightfall when the last bus pulled into this anxious town carrying the young survivors home to their tearful parents. One by one, the weeping and exhausted schoolgirls struggled down the steps of the bus and into their parents' arms. They were witnesses to a bloody attack that left seven of their classmates dead, six others injured and turned an annual school outing into a nightmare. The scene outside the Amit Fierst School on Thursday evening was one of chaos and emotion.

A Palestinian gunman, shouting slogans of revenge on behalf of the "Gaza martyrs," opened fire Monday on a busload of French tourists in Jordan, spraying them with bullets before pulling out a dagger and stabbing two passengers cowering behind the front seats.

The killer of seven Israeli schoolgirls should have been shot to death by his fellow soldiers as soon as he began firing, King Hussein said Thursday. In unusually harsh words, the king wrote to security forces a week after a Jordanian soldier shot the girls on an island in the Jordan River and said the soldiers' comrades should have tried to "kill him immediately." The gunman, Cpl. Ahmed Daqamseh, 28, has been detained for questioning. He is expected to be tried in a military court.

The Palestine Liberation Organization and Jordan, hotbeds of support for Iraq in the Persian Gulf War, broke with the majority of Arab nations Sunday to sharply condemn the U.S.-led ground offensive in Kuwait. The allied effort, however, won restrained praise in Israel. A Jordanian spokesman said the Amman government "denounces this aggression and expresses the anger and pain of its people and calls upon the international community to . . . put an end to this fighting."

The slaying of seven Israeli schoolgirls by a Jordanian soldier this week highlighted what has become a sad truth here--that peace in the Middle East never quite lives up to its name. Or even to expectations. Egypt and Israel made peace nearly 20 years ago, and neither side has much good to say about it still.

Silence descended Friday on the rundown family home of Ahmed Moussa Daqamseh. Police turned away the curious. Neighbors clammed up, apparently aware of police orders not to discuss Daqamseh, the Jordanian soldier who shot seven Israeli schoolgirls to death the day before. Regional police gave the reason: "It's very sensitive," one said. "It's a matter between states."

It was long after nightfall when the last bus pulled into this anxious town carrying the young survivors home to their tearful parents. One by one, the weeping and exhausted schoolgirls struggled down the steps of the bus and into their parents' arms. They were witnesses to a bloody attack that left seven of their classmates dead, six others injured and turned an annual school outing into a nightmare. The scene outside the Amit Fierst School on Thursday evening was one of chaos and emotion.

A Jordanian soldier unleashed volleys of automatic rifle fire on Israeli schoolgirls who were on a field trip at the scenic "Island of Peace" border post Thursday, killing seven of the junior high students and wounding six. Witnesses said 40 to 50 eighth-graders had gotten off their bus and were surveying the sun-washed view over the River Jordan when the gunman grabbed a fellow soldier's weapon and began firing at the students' backs from a guard tower.

The Palestine Liberation Organization and Jordan, hotbeds of support for Iraq in the Persian Gulf War, broke with the majority of Arab nations Sunday to sharply condemn the U.S.-led ground offensive in Kuwait. The allied effort, however, won restrained praise in Israel. A Jordanian spokesman said the Amman government "denounces this aggression and expresses the anger and pain of its people and calls upon the international community to . . . put an end to this fighting."

A Palestinian gunman, shouting slogans of revenge on behalf of the "Gaza martyrs," opened fire Monday on a busload of French tourists in Jordan, spraying them with bullets before pulling out a dagger and stabbing two passengers cowering behind the front seats.