AMMAN: Jordan has proof a Grad-type rocket that struck its port city of Aqaba killing a taxi driver and wounding five other people was fired from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, a senior official told AFP on Tuesday.
"We can now say without hesitation that the Grad rocket was launched from Sinai," said the official close to the investigation of Monday’s rocket attack, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"We have strong suspicions about the identity of the group behind this attack," he added without elaborating.
The rocket that fell in a busy Aqaba street near a major hotel on Monday was one of several apparently fired at the nearby Israeli tourist resort of Eilat, in an attack condemned by Israel, Russia and the United States.
"The fact that Aqaba was not the target and that the rocket fell there by mistake does not change the fact that it’s still a terrorist act, which killed
and wounded innocent people," the senior Jordanian official said.
"This is the second such incident in three months and Jordan will not tolerate that its territory becomes a target of rocket attacks," he added.
An Egyptian security official has denied the attack was launched from the Sinai Peninsula, a mountainous desert region that flanks the Gulf of Aqaba.
"The rockets did not come from Sinai," which would need "a great deal of logistics and equipment, and that is impossible considering the heavy security presence in the Sinai Peninsula," the official told AFP.
In reaction to these allegations, Egypt has launched a wide security sweep of Sinai, an Egyptian security official said on Tuesday.
"Following the Jordanian comments, Egypt has launched a wide security sweep of the Sinai peninsula," the Egyptian official said on condition of anonymity.
But he insisted "there are no organized groups operating in Sinai and security on the peninsula is extremely tight. Any suspicious activity would have been detected," he said.
There has been no official reaction by Egypt to the rocket attacks.
