Missile hits warehouse in Red Sea port of Aqaba; none hurt.
By ASSOCIATED PRESSEilat and Aqaba 311(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski )
A Russian-designed missile struck a refrigerated warehouse in Jordan's Red Sea port of Aqaba, the Jordanian information minister said Thursday.Nabil al-Sharif said initial investigations indicate the missile was a Russian-designed Grad that was fired from somewhere outside Jordan. He said Jordanian authorities continue to look into the explosion to determine where the missile was launched from.Al-Sharif, who is also a government spokesman, told The Associated Press that the missile damaged a refrigerated warehouse on Aqaba's northern outskirts. No deaths or injuries were reported.Earlier Thursday, police said they found the remains of what they thought was a Katyusha rocket. They said they were trying to determine the launch site and who might have been behind the attack.Aqaba residents reported hearing at least two early morning explosions in the city.The IDF said it searched the Eilat area after the reports surfaced but found no evidence of anything landing in Israel.The incident occurred as jitters were high a week after Israel issued an "urgent" warning to its citizens to leave Egypt's nearby Sinai Peninsula immediately, citing "concrete evidence of an expected terrorist attempt to kidnap Israelis in Sinai."An Egyptian security official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release information to the media, denied reports that rockets were fired from Sinai on Thursday.The damaged warehouse was at an industrial complex at the entrance of Aqaba, 210 miles (350 kilometers) south of the Jordanian capital, Amman.In 2005, al-Qaida terrorists used the area to fire Katyusha rockets at a US warship docked in the port there.
Therockets missed the ship but hit a Jordanian army warehouse, killing aJordanian soldier. Eight al-Qaida terrorists were arrested and laterreceived prison terms ranging from seven years to death sentences.TheGrad missile, known as the BM-21 Grad, is a truck-mounted 122-mmmultiple rocket launcher developed in the early 1960s in the SovietUnion. Military experts say it's maximum range is 25 miles (40kilometers).
