AMMAN, Dec 14: Jordanian authorities arrested a Jordanian and a Libyan on Saturday, both alleged members of the Al Qaeda network, in connection with the October murder of a US diplomat in Amman, Information Minister Mohamad Adwan said.

Laurence Foley, who worked for the US Agency for International Development, was shot several times at close range outside his home in Amman on October 28.

Adwan said “the principal suspect is Libyan Salem Saad Salem bin Soued, who shot Laurence Foley. His accomplice, a Jordanian, Yasser Fathi Ibrahim, waited for him in the car. The two were both arrested.”

He later told CNN television: “I just want to say that they confessed to all of their crimes and they confessed to their ties to Al Qaeda network.”

From the beginning, officials suspected the killing had political motives. There were no signs of a robbery attempt, and sources close to the enquiry said the killer had probably used a silencer.

Foley was the first US diplomat to be killed in Jordan, and the first in the volatile Middle East since the Sept 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington.

Adwan told CNN the suspects had “smuggled some weapons including bombs, machine guns, even some rockets” and had also tried to identify targets among Jordanian diplomats.

“(They were) scanning for different targets in Jordan and they must have found that Foley was an easier target at the time,” he said.—AFP