Abraham Farajian / ReutersDeadly rockets hit Jordan hotel area, Israeli resort
Blast kills taxi driver near Red Sea port city's Intercontinental Hotel
A rocket attack left cars damaged in Jordan's Red Sea city of Aqaba on Monday.
msnbc.com news services
JERUSALEM — Several rockets were fired early Monday toward the Israeli resort city Eilat, and one hit in neighboring Jordan, killing one person and wounding four, officials in both countries said.
One rocket hit in Jordan's Aqaba on a main street in front of the Intercontinental Hotel, killing a taxi driver, Information Minister Ali Ayed told The Associated Press. Four other Jordanians were injured, Ayed said.
"The Grad rocket landed in a public street near a major five-star hotel and caused four injuries, with three persons lightly wounded and the other casualty in serious condition," a Jordanian interior ministry source told Reuters.
Asked where the Aqaba rocket was fired, he said without elaborating: "It came from the west." Experts were investigating the site to find out where the short-range Grad rocket had been launched, he said.
It was the second such attack this year, following a similar volley in April that Israeli authorities say was also fired from Egypt.
'Fragmented metal'
A Jordanian resident in the port city Ibrahim Salymeh said he heard one loud blast and when he arrived at the scene saw at least three injured men taken to a nearby hospital by ambulance.
A crowd gathered near the scene of the explosion.
"We saw the wreckage of a taxi which was burnt and fragmented metal scattered around the area that was cordoned off by police," Aqaba resident Abdullah Yashin Rawashdehd told Reuters.
Israel has warned repeatedly of Islamic militant activity in the Sinai, where suicide bombers killed dozens of people — including tourists and Israelis — in attacks on resorts between 2004 and 2006. Weapons smuggling is rife on the peninsula, where relations between Egyptian authorities and Bedouin have been tense.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the blasts were caused by rockets that were believed to have been fired from the Sinai. He said no one was injured in Eilat.
Eilat Mayor Meir Itzhak Halevi told Israel Radio there was no sign any of the rockets hit inside Eilat's city limits. Israeli media reported that three rockets fell into the Red Sea and two in open spaces.
Following Monday's attack, Egyptian police in Sinai launched an investigation but found no indication that the rocket fire came from their side of the border, Egyptian security officials said.
"Our reports show that no rockets were launched from Sinai. If Israel or Jordan are accusing us of this, they need to produce proof on video," said one senior intelligence officer, who like the others spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.
Abduction plot?
Israel regularly issues travel warnings to its citizens to avoid Sinai, a popular vacation destination for Israelis. Earlier this year, in a rare move, Israel ordered all its citizens in Sinai to evacuate, saying it had concrete intelligence that militants were planning to abduct Israelis and possibly take them to the Gaza Strip.
Eilat, Israel's only outlet on the Red Sea, has rarely been a target. In January 2007, a Palestinian suicide bomber killed three people in Eilat, the first ever to hit Israel's southernmost city.
In April's attack, a series of rockets were fired, most falling into the sea off Eilat but one flying into Jordan, hitting a warehouse without causing no injuries. Israeli police said that attack also came from the Sinai.
Jordan and Egypt are the only Arab states to have full peace accords with Israel. Those ties were frayed by Israel's crackdown in 2000 on a Palestinian uprising against Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
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