200,000 protest Amman attacks

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From combined dispatches

AMMAN, Jordan -- At least 200,000 persons demonstrated yesterday against the recent bombings of three luxury hotels, while a new online statement attributed to terrorist leader Abu Musab Zarqawi defended the attacks and threatened to cut off the head of Jordan's King Abdullah II.

An anti-terrorist demonstration of such size is unprecedented in the Arab world, where Zarqawi, his mentor, Osama bin Laden, and their al Qaeda organization have attained folk-hero status among Muslim masses.

"Zarqawi, from Amman, we say to you: 'You are a coward,' " protesters chanted while brandishing banners with the names of their tribes from every part of Jordan.

A similar protest in Jordan two days after the attacks on three hotels in the capital, which killed 59 persons, mustered several thousand people.

One attacker blew himself up at a wedding party in the ballroom of the Radisson SAS hotel. Seventeen relatives of the bride and groom died.

"More than 100,000 people took part in the demonstration which left the al-Husseini mosque and then moved towards Amman town hall," security forces spokesman Bashir al-Daajeh told Agence France-Presse.

"Their number increased as the demonstrators were approaching the town hall and then reached 250,000," he estimated.

The demonstrators marched along a mile and a half route before arriving at the town hall, where several asked the public to denounce "this savage terrorist crime" or to recite poems in praise of Jordan and the royal dynasty.

The civil groups that organized the protests said that no less than 200,000 people took part in the demonstration.